3 Count: Supreme Answers

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1: Supreme Court Backs Google in Copyright Fight with Oracle

First off today, Adam Liptak at The New York Times reports that The Supreme Court has ruled 6-2 in favor of Google in its ongoing case against Oracle over Google’s implementation of the Java programming language as part of their Android mobile operating system.

When creating their version of Java for Android, Google developed their own version of the language but used the same APIs as Oracle’s. The goal was to make it so that existing applications written in Java would be compatible with Android. This led to a back-and-forth legal battle in the lower courts and an argument before the Supreme court as to whether API’s could be protected by copyright and whether the copying was fair use.

The court largely ignored the first question and ruled that the copying of the APIs was a fair use. Specifically, the court found that the copying of the API was in public interest as it enabled increased creativity among the public. The dissent, which was led by Justice Thomas, said that was not the case and disagreed with the majority ignoring the first question.

2: Guillermo del Toro Overcomes Claim ‘The Shape of Water’ Was Plagiarized

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Guillermo del Toro has once again emerged victorious in a lawsuit over the film The Shape of Water with the plaintiff in the case now agreeing that del Toro is the lone author of that work and that it is not a plagiarism of an earlier story.

The lawsuit was filed by David Zindel, the son of Paul Zindel, who is the author of Let Me Hear You Whisper. According to the lawsuit, The Shape of Water was an infringement on that earlier work, copying several key elements. The case was initially dismissed by a lower court but revived on appeal. However, now the two sides have reached a settlement and agreed to dismiss the case.

According to a statement from the defendants, David Zindel learned confidential information as part of the discovery process that made him realize his claims are unfounded and he has agreed to voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.

3: Joey Ryan’s YouTube Deleted Due to Copyright Violations

Finally today, H Jenkins at Ringside News writes that former professional wrestler Joey Ryan has had his YouTube account deleted from YouTube following multiple copyright violations.

Ryan is a former professional wrestler that, in February 2020, became mired in a series of allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior that led to him being fired from the promotions he was working with. Though Ryan has said he is not looking to return to wrestling, he did begin loading up his YouTube channel with various matched he performed in, regardless of whether he owned the footage.

That apparently came back to bite him as the channel is now fully offline due to copyright strikes. Before its closure, it was the fifth-largest wrestling YouTube channel with over 600,000 subscribers.

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