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Google beat Oracle in the trial court, where a judge with a software background ruled that APIs could not be copyrighted. but the Appeals court sided with Oracle, ruling that APIs can be copyrighted. Google now asks the Supreme Court to review the issue of whether APIs can be copyrighted and is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court decision.
(Of interest may also be the earlier dispute in 2012 whether a programming language can be copyrighted. This presumably relates to whether Google violated copyright by using a variant of the Java language and its APIs in the Android framework. Oracle, who thinks it can be, has used J.R.R. Tolkein's Elvish language as an examples (PDF) of a language that can be copyrighted. Google disagrees)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday October 09 2014, @07:04PM
The one time the universe aligns and we actually get a judge who knows his shit (Allsup IIRC), naturally they have to reexamine the case when he gives a decent ruling.
Damn it. Damn it to hell.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday October 09 2014, @07:29PM
That's what those expensive lawyers are for -- to make sure sensible rulings don't stand. It worked for Microsoft.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.