The Supreme Court Hears Oracle vs. Google Tomorrow

arstechnica.com

52 points·MBCook··6 comments

> Re: Lotus vs. Borland: The problem for Google is that not every appeals court has followed the First Circuit's approach in Lotus. The Supreme Court actually agreed to hear an appeal of the Lotus ruling back in the 1990s, but, with one justice absent from the case, the high court deadlocked 4-4. That allowed the Lotus ruling to stand, but it didn't make the ruling binding on other appeals courts.

A 4-4 tie could happen again this time around, as there is currently one supreme court seat vacant just as there was for Lotus vs. Borland.

I’m pretty sure justices don’t vote in cases they haven’t heard, so it’s guaranteed to be just 8 (unless another one croaks).

If Oracle wins I really hope they get sued to hell by IBM and everyone else they have ripped off over the years.

Google will lose on purpose. The ruling is more valuable than the money they'll lose to oracle.

$9-10B? Even for Google that's not a small amount, and the fact that Google asked SCOTUS to have a look means that they care, otherwise they would be fine with the Federal Circuit decision.

To play devils advocate, Google could (and is the only party who can: oracle can’t) appeal to want to establish binding precedent.

But there is zero indication google is trying to sabotage their own case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com