A jury sided with Google in an $8.8 billion copyright case brought by Oracle. The jury found that Google's use of Oracle's APIs in its Android operating system was fair use. It reached the verdict after three days of deliberation in San Francisco court. Oracle says it plans to appeal the decision. This was the $9 billion question: If a software company puts a free tool online, do developers need the company's permission to use it? The case focused on 37 application programming interfaces that Google included in its Android operating system in 2009. APIs help different kinds of software communicate with one another. ... (full story)