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| If you can copyright an API, what else can you copyright? |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-05-15 18:04:10 |
| "If Judge William Alsup rules that APIs are subject to copyrights, he would overturn common wisdom in programming circles, potentially exposing many companies and developers who have built software platforms that openly mimic existing APIs. But that's not all. Such a ruling could shake things up for many other companies across the programming world and beyond." The fact we even have to worry about this speaks volumes about the state of the industry. |
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| Comment by marcp |
| By marcp on 2012-05-15 18:16:56 |
|
"API is copyrighted!" - says judge "Copyright my ass!" - says reason. |
 - Score: 5 |
| RE: Comment by marcp - reason? |
| By jabbotts on 2012-05-15 18:22:06 |
| When has such a thing had anything to do with law? |
| - Score: 4 |
| Greed |
| By moondevil on 2012-05-15 18:30:23 |
| If Oracle wins, they will repent to the outcome created by their greed. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Didn't they just lose? |
| By Carewolf on 2012-05-15 18:48:24 |
| Seriously wasn't that case already ruled upon? APIs are not copyrightable, but a trivial 9 line function was? |
| - Score: 3 |
| java's future |
| By fran on 2012-05-15 18:51:06 |
|
Sorry, I know this is not stack overflow, but with such action will Oracle loose the good will of the programming community? i.e. will some programmers stop using it? How does the competition compare, i.e. what could Google have used instead of Java? One good thing I can see coming out of this case is that this will at least give some Java users a level certainty. And if Oracle looses it could actually be a good thing for Java? Edited 2012-05-15 18:53 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Greed |
| By shmerl on 2012-05-15 18:58:14 |
| Do they know about such concept as repentance? So far they didn't indicate it. |
| - Score: 4 |
| Pretty irrelevant |
| By TBPrince on 2012-05-15 19:06:03 |
|
That decision would matter in US only. EU has already stated that APIs are not copyrightable so end of the story. Should Oracle win, many companies (expecially startups) would migrate to European Union and that would really hurt US economy (as if more hurting was needed…). It's no coincidence if EU ruled out that APIs could be copyrighted a few days before that decision : that builds a landscape and sends a message. |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[2]: Comment by marcp - reason? |
| By Spiron on 2012-05-15 20:27:47 |
| since somebody can sue for 1 mil+ for somebody else trying to make their software work |
| - Score: 2 |
| Comment by TomF |
| By TomF on 2012-05-15 21:07:01 |
| next up to be copyrighted... the alphabet... the order of characters to be used to form words. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Comment by TomF |
| By quackalist on 2012-05-15 21:25:51 |
| The alphabet as an ordering system is relatively recent but it does pre-date Mickey Mouse so probably, for now, not copyrightable...itself, if memory serves, a British invention...more, as useful tool for controlling the spread of 'undesirable' religious tracts than anything to do with business. |
| - Score: 3 |
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