Oracle Files Appeal Brief in Oracle v. Google ~pj Updated 3Xs

Oracle has filed its appeal brief [PDF] in Oracle v. Google with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. I have it for you. Google must file its reply by March 28, according to the docket.

Guess how many lawyers are listed on the brief for Oracle? Twenty-eight: 6 from Boies Schiller, 5 from Kirkland & Ellis, 10 from Morrison & Foerster, and 7 from Orrick, Herrington. I'm assuming Oracle cares about the outcome plenty. You won't believe how the Introduction opens:

Ann Droid wants to publish a bestseller. So she sits down with an advance copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix-the fifth book-and proceeds to transcribe. She verbatim copies all the chapter titles-from Chapter 1 ("Dudley Demented") to Chapter 38 ("The Second War Begins"). She copies verbatim the topic sentences of each paragraph, starting from the first (highly descriptive) one and continuing, in order, to the last, simple one ("Harry nodded."). She then paraphrases the rest of each paragraph. She rushes the competing version to press before the original under the title: Ann Droid's Harry Potter 5.0. The knockoff flies off the shelves. J.K. Rowling sues for copyright infringement. Ann's defenses: "But I wrote most of the words from scratch. Besides, this was fair use, because I copied only the portions necessary to tap into the Harry Potter fan base."

Obviously, the defenses would fail.

Defendant Google Inc. has copied a blockbuster literary work just as surely, and as improperly, as Ann Droid-and has offered the same defenses.

Yes. Ann Droid. You know what's wrong with this Introduction? Software is not a novel. The copyright rules are not identical. Duh. And that's not an accurate or fair description of what Google did. I'd expect them to say that to a jury, not the Federal Circuit.