Google's Android software just dodged a $9 billion bullet.
A federal jury found Thursday that Google didn't need permission to use a rival's programming tools as it built Android - now the world's leading smartphone operating software and a key part of Google's multi-billion dollar Internet business.
Software competitor Oracle claimed Google had stolen its intellectual property and reaped huge profits by copying pieces of an Oracle programming language called Java. But the jury in U.S. District Court found that Google made "fair use," under copyright law, of Java elements that help different software programs work together.