Here we go - the insanely maximalist interpretation of copyright law by the Federal Circuit, with its concomitant ludicrously restrictive idea of fair use, now goes to the Supremes. The DoJ had actually argued against the idea of the High Court's taking up of this appeal (on grounds that this case was not the proper one for the Court to use to clarify these issues). I couldn't disagree more. The Federal Circuit Court has been positively adamant in its rigid views, right down to second-guessing how the jury rendered the key facts, and the case therefore is a very compelling one for a better assessment to be made by justices who are not so fixated in their views as the Federal Circuit has been. This area of the law is critical to the whole idea of inter-operability going forward and it is welcome to see that the Court will be deciding it sometime this term.
My prior comment at the time of the Federal Circuit decision: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064289