On Sat, 10 May 2014 12:55:29 +0100, TJ wrote: > 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?
'Though the trial court did add the caveat that it “does not hold that the structure, sequence and organization of all computer programs may be stolen,” Copyrightability Decision, 872 F. Supp. 2d at 1002, it is hard to see how its method of operation analysis could lead to any other conclusion.' the appeals court seems to have hit the nail on the head. I cannot fathom why the FSF is on the side of letting API's get copied, I mean stolen. Do they not see the result this would have on the GPL? Or, do they see a larger issue? Or, do they just think that it's not stealing? It's remarkable that the trial judge and the appeal judge use a word like stolen, and not "infringe" or other legal mumbo jumbo. -Thufir
