Is Android doomed?

http://news.cnet.com …rt/?tag=mncol;e​ditorPicks

Oracle, Microsoft and Apple are really going after Google for it's IP theft in Android. I wonder if Jobs' goal of it disappear may actually come true.

i doubt it'll go away, but i could see them paying out some big sums of cash before this is over.

But if a jury decides in Oracle's, Microsoft's or Apple's favor, will they be *required* to license? I know Jobs wouldn't, but who knows about Cook.

I doubt it will disappear. I'm fairly young, so I may just be overlooking something, but I can't recall something as widespread as Android disappearing over a court ruling. I don't think it would be feasible. I can see features being removed, rewritten or licensed but I don't see the OS as a whole disappearing.

I don't think Android is doomed. It's far better than Apple's offerings.

Numenorean wrote in post #14293358
I don't think Android is doomed. It's far better than Apple's offerings.

If it's stolen IP then it should go away.

It won't go away, the worst case scenario is Google will pay lots of $$$ to Oracle and move on. They won't/can't scrap Android all of a sudden.

Also lots of people (read: non-geeks) "like" Android because 1) it's cheaper 2) not-Apple, not because it's "better".

Tony-S wrote in post #14293544
If it's stolen IP then it should go away.

Each and every day code is borrowed from somewhere as there are only so many ways to move a mouse or tap a key that wont fall under some patent that was created strictly for greed. In fact facebook is trying to copyright the word Face and Book which they have already banned anyone using the word Book anywhere on the site. But next you will say all books should be burned if and when it happens to violate some greedy asshats plan to enslave the English vocabulary.

Yes

Tony-S wrote in post #14293544
If it's stolen IP then it should go away.

The way I read it, it's not stolen IP. Java has been free for a long time. I can go download the JRE and a free development environment (or simply use Notepad and the JRE compiler) for it right now and write programs that do any number of things. I can then sell those programs. That is not stealing IP.

Oracle seems to be whining because it couldn't figure out some mobile market but Google did. Then MS and Apple jump in because they are competitors and hell why not try to lessen competition?

Numenorean wrote in post #14294305
The way I read it, it's not stolen IP. Java has been free for a long time. I can go download the JRE and a free development environment (or simply use Notepad and the JRE compiler) for it right now and write programs that do any number of things. I can then sell those programs. That is not stealing IP.

Oracle seems to be whining because it couldn't figure out some mobile market but Google did. Then MS and Apple jump in because they are competitors and hell why not try to lessen competition?

From what I've read, Oracle's lawsuit is over the way Google used some of the Java API's, so while Java itself may be free, the particular API's were still copyrighted by Oracle, hence the lawsuit. I don't know enough about the coding and API's and who owns what copyright, etc to actually form an opinion an opinion on that.

Only opinion I have on all of this is the patent system needs some serious reform for software coding. I've looked at some of the patents that get filed and approved and I'm amazed that something so vague and obvious could be patented. The fighting going on between all the software companies is irritating. In the end, the consumer doesn't really care who owns what patent, or why a feature can't be in a particular device. All the consumer cares about is that their device works, and they have an expectation that it can do certain things that most other devices can do.

imsellingmyfoot wrote in post #14294339
From what I've read, Oracle's lawsuit is over the way Google used some of the Java API's, so while Java itself may be free, the particular API's were still copyrighted by Oracle, hence the lawsuit. I don't know enough about the coding and API's and who owns what copyright, etc to actually form an opinion an opinion on that.

Only opinion I have on all of this is the patent system needs some serious reform for software coding. I've looked at some of the patents that get filed and approved and I'm amazed that something so vague and obvious could be patented. The fighting going on between all the software companies is irritating. In the end, the consumer doesn't really care who owns what patent, or why a feature can't be in a particular device. All the consumer cares about is that their device works, and they have an expectation that it can do certain things that most other devices can do.

You can't write a Java program without using API's - at least not anything that would be very advanced, especially anything with a GUI and complex operations.

You could technically write your own API's, but why? The things they do are so specific. It's like in one of the articles how one of the developers was said that some code he wrote was very similar to code he wrote while at Sun/Oracle and they had copyrighted. He pointed out that any competent high school programmer could write the same code to do the same thing. Copyrighting that is rather ridiculous IMO.

Numenorean wrote in post #14294356
You can't write a Java program without using API's - at least not anything that would be very advanced, especially anything with a GUI and complex operations.

You could technically write your own API's, but why? The things they do are so specific. It's like in one of the articles how one of the developers was said that some code he wrote was very similar to code he wrote while at Sun/Oracle and they had copyrighted. He pointed out that any competent high school programmer could write the same code to do the same thing. Copyrighting that is rather ridiculous IMO.

Exactly. There's a lot of things that are copyrighted that shouldn't be.

Yeah. I think I'm going to copyright addition and subtraction. Tons of people are going to owe me a lot of money. That's seriously how basic some of these pieces of code are. I think it's more how you use them to make something whole like Android or Windows or iOS or a specific application.

However, I wrote a calculator program for my Android phone as a project. Can I copyright that and say that anyone else who makes a calculator program has to pay me for it? That's just ridiculous.

On the other hand, if I made a game called "Enraged Avians" that was centered around catapulting these avians into a bunch of swine well then I'd probably be in trouble.

That's the main reason why some people think software patents shouldn't exist at all.