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AndrewH
IIRC the reasoning behind Sun copyrighting the API was an attempt to prevent the ...
brionski
I do believe there is effort involved in defining a set of APIs; however, given ...
What were they thinking: copyrighting APIs
Brian Bailey
5/11/2012 9:34 AM EDT
A couple of days ago, there was an interesting outcome in the legal battle between Oracle and Google over the copyright infringement claim sought by Oracle for the Java API package found in the Google Android operating system. On Monday, the jury passed down a verdict that said they were unable to decide if Google's implementation of the Java APIs in Android fell under the 'fair use' exception to copyright. The jury found that Android infringed on the overall structure, sequence, and organization of copyrighted material involving 37 APIs used by the Java platform and contained nine lines of copyrighted Java code in one function – rangeCheck.
This battle has been going on since 2010 when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems – the original creator of Java. What Google was upset about was that Google had created a new version of the Java platform and thus potentially the write once, run anywhere claim for Java could have been destroyed.
So, Judge Alsup has been put in a difficult position. Google claims that if fair use for APIs cannot be decided, then a mistrial should be declared, based on precedent, and it appears as if Google made a good case for fair use during the trial. As such, it has been indicated that the damages would be minimal and so the Judge has basically asked Google and Oracle to settle it themselves so that the copyright of APIs does not need to be defined in law.
What do you think? Should APIs be copyrightable?
Brian Bailey – keeping you covered
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t.alex
5/14/2012 10:18 PM EDT
No please :-)
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brionski
5/15/2012 10:37 AM EDT
I do believe there is effort involved in defining a set of APIs; however, given the intent to support write once - run everywhere, you expect that the interfaces have to be matched. It is up to anyone copying the APIs to implement them properly and that is not easy for a complex API with perhaps many undocumented behaviors or side effects. Only if the actual API implementation is copied should that be copyright infringement, in my opinion.
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AndrewH
5/17/2012 4:27 AM EDT
IIRC the reasoning behind Sun copyrighting the API was an attempt to prevent the Java platform forking and fragmenting. In order to call your offering Java it has to pass a compatibility test.
You could license the API (often for no cost).
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