Dive Brief:

• Oracle filed an appeal Friday to a May ruling in which a jury found Google's use of Java in its Android operating systems constitutes fair use under the Copyright Act.

• The case, which goes back to 2010, centers around Google's decision to use Java as the base for its Android operating system without obtaining a license from Sun Microsystems, which was acquired by Oracle in 2010.

• Oracle's complaint is that Google used parts of its Java platform in Android without a license. Oracle originally filed the suit against Google six years ago, seeking more than $9 billion in damages from Google.

Dive Insight:

It's a case of the chicken and the egg for the software world. Oracle claims that allowing Google to use Java for free dissuades software companies from innovating, while Google claims not being allowed fair use of Java (or other software) prevents programmers from building new apps that can interact with each other, ultimately making any software less useful.

Experts say the outcome of the case could "alter the ground rules for modern software," and potentially change how other businesses work with programming languages.