Google And Oracle's Decade-Long Copyright Battle Reaches Supreme Court

Those in Oracle's camp say if its copyright is not protected, that will discourage innovation.

"There's a lot of small start-up companies in the software space, some of whom rely on the copyrightability and the copyright protection that goes with the Copyright Act to justify their business model," said Bob Taylor, a Silicon Valley lawyer who works with start-ups and investors.

"It's much easier to copy software than it is to develop it," he said.