What are the potential ramifications of the U.S.A. appeals court decision in
Oracle Vs Google, that APIs are copyrightable and the only question now is
whether such use is fair-use?
I'm wondering about the specific affect on a GPL licensed project that re-implements an API, distributes their code under the GPL, and the developers and downstream users exposure to a claim of
copyright infringement (of the API) for developing and using the F/OSS implementation by the original API copyright holder?
More widely, regardless of the outcome of the fair-use trial, if this appeals
decision stands without challenge, interoperability seems to have been dealt a
death-blow.
If in creating an interoperable project - let us imagine something akin to the Samba developers re-implementing the Microsoft SMB/CIFS and related protocols, or the WINE project's reimplementation of
the Win32 APIs, or the OpenJDK project re-implementing the Java APIs - then the very fact that the law assumes that the APIs are copyrighted and a trial on fair-use is the only way to determine
whether or not there is copyright infringement will have the effect of stopping most interoperability projects in their tracks.
After all, who wants to be on the receiving end of a copyright infringement trial with the stresses, trial costs and infringement penalties it could entail? Add to this the unreasonably long length of
copyright protection terms and it is hard to imagine any developer or company willing to develop interoperable software.
It isn't hard to imagine a whole new 'market segment' of "Copyright Trolls"
a-la Patent Trolls, buying up copyrights in APIs and then suing for copyright
infringement.
Of most concern are the international conventions and treaties that could cause
this U.S.A. decision to be applied around the world.
Could the lawyers amongst us provide some guidance especially as the decision
may affect interpretation of API protection outside of the U.S.A.?
