经济学人下载:硅谷知识产权之争 Java丛林大战

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商业

Intellectual property in Silicon Valley
硅谷知识产权之争

Rumble in the Java jungle
Java丛林大战1

The legal fight between Oracle and Google is arcane, but the stakes are high
甲骨文和谷歌之间的诉讼晦涩难解，牵涉的商业利益却是非常巨大

LARRY ELLISON and Larry Page, the bosses of Oracle and Google, share a name. But they clearly do not share the same view of a particular intellectual property (IP) matter.
甲骨文的老板拉里?埃里森和谷歌的老板拉里?佩奇都有一个相同的名字，但他们在某些知识产权问题上的看法却是迥然不同。

On April 16th a jury began hearing arguments in a trial to determine whether Google's Android operating system infringes copyrights and patents owned by
4月16日，为确定谷歌的安卓操作系统是否侵犯了甲骨文的版权和专利，陪审团开始听取法庭辩论。

The outcome could shake up the Android world of more than 300m mobile devices.
审理的结果也许会震动安卓业界，这一产业涵盖了超过3亿部的移动设备。

The judge has called the trial "the World Series of IP cases".
法官将这次审判称为"知识产权案件中的总冠军赛2".

That sounds about right-though both firms are far more global than the baseball contest in the analogy.
这样说起来大概不错，虽然拿来类比的两家公司可比这项棒球赛事国际化多了。

Oracle is hoping to hit a legal home run-and win $1 billion in damages-by showing that Google failed to pay for its use of Java, a programming language which Oracle inherited when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010, and on which Android is based.
甲骨文希望通过证明谷歌使用Java没有付费，在法律上打出一记全垒打，赢得10亿美元的赔偿金。Java是一种编程语言，甲骨文2010年收购Sun微系统后将其接手，它也是安卓的基础。

Google says it has done nothing wrong.
谷歌表示自己没有任何过错。

The trial is delving into the complex world of computer programming and providing fascinating glimpses of the inner workings of the two tech giants.
案件的审理是对复杂的计算机编程业界的深入研究，也让众人对两大技术巨擎的内部运作有机会惊鸿一瞥。

In testimony this week, for instance, Mr Ellison revealed that Oracle had considered buying Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry.
例如，埃里森先生本周在作证时就披露甲骨文曾考虑过收购RIM（黑莓的制造商）。

But at the heart of the case lies the thorny issue of whether copyright law applies to application programming interfaces,
但本案的核心在于，版权法对于应用程序编程接口（简称API）是否适用，这是个棘手的问题。

or APIs-the specifications that allow one piece of software to talk to another (in this case, allowing apps to run on Android).
API是允许软件不同部分进行通信的规范（本案中，API允许程序在安卓系统上运行）。

Oracle claims that Google used 37 Java APIs in Android without paying, and that the APIs are covered by copyright because they are the creative work of Java's developers.
甲骨文的主张是，谷歌在安卓系统中使用了37个Java API，但没有支付费用，而且由于这些API是Java开发者们创造性的工作成果，所以它们是受版权保护的。

Google's lawyers have responded by arguing that APIs are akin to words in a poem.
谷歌的律师们回应辩称API就像诗歌里的词语。

Copyright can protect the poem itself, but not the underlying elements used to create it.
版权能保护诗歌本身，但不能对用来创造它的基本元素进行保护。

Google-whose chairman once worked for Sun-has also made much of the fact that Java's creators cheered the launch of Android.
谷歌，公司董事会主席曾为Sun效力，也特别强调了Java的创造者们为安卓的发布而欢呼这一事实。

If Oracle prevails, Google may have to reach a settlement with Mr Ellison's firm so it does not have to cut the offending APIs from Android, which would cause huge disruption.
如果甲骨文赢得诉讼，谷歌可能只好与埃里森先生的公司达成和解，这样才不必从安卓中将侵权的API移除，一旦移除将会引发巨大的混乱。

"Oracle wants a financial piece of Android," says Tyler Ochoa, a law professor at Santa Clara University.
"甲骨文想从安卓的金钱蛋糕中分得一块，"圣克拉拉大学的法律学教授泰勒?奥乔亚这样说到。

A victory would also raise further questions about the legal status of APIs.
诉讼的胜利同样会激起对于API法律地位更深层次的疑问。

Like a baseball game, this saga could have plenty of innings.
如同一场棒球比赛，这场业界传奇可能要大战三百回合。