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posted by janrinok on Monday June 29 2015, @11:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the grab-some-popcorn dept.

TheVerge is reporting the Supreme Court has declined to hear the long-running Google, Inc. v. Oracle America, Inc. case concerning copyright over the Java APIs. This is an important case, because it sets precedent if publicly documented software APIs can be copyrighted. This has relevance throughout the FOSS community, from Wine (reimplementing the Windows API) to Octave (reimplementing the MATLAB API).

A brief history of events: The original decision, handed down in 2012 in district court, found strongly against Oracle that APIs were not protected by copyright. Oracle appealed, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court decision, finding the "structure, sequence and organization" of an API was copyrightable.

Google petitioned SCOTUS to hear the case. The Court seemed unsure, and requested the input of the Solicitor General (Donald Verrilli, appointed by Barack Obama). Mr. Verrilli replied with a brief instructing SCOTUS not to hear the case. Today, SCOTUS officially declined to hear arguments.

By declining to hear arguments SCOTUS defers to the appeals court ruling: APIs are copyrightable. Google may still have a defense under the Fair Use doctrine, but now all other users of APIs will have to prove Fair Use if a suit is brought. There is no option to overturn this precedent save a new case working through the courts. Soylentils, what will the effects of this decision be? Have you used or reverse-engineered code from public APIs in your own work?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:26AM

    by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:26AM (#203181)

    Did anybody else read Verrilli's opinion? It's awful. He clearly did not bother to learn anything about what an API actually is. The whole thing is rather ignorant.

    He completely dismisses the comparison to Lotus based on nothing but his idiotic opinion that it's harder for a spreadsheet user to learn a new set of menus than it is for a programmer to learn a new API. What kind of logic is that? Moron.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Tuesday June 30 2015, @06:49AM

    by lentilla (1770) on Tuesday June 30 2015, @06:49AM (#203206)

    it's harder for a spreadsheet user to learn a new set of menus than it is for a programmer to learn a new API. What kind of logic is that?

    Illogical as it may be, there's more than a grain of truth. A (competent) programmer will probably grumble a bit when forced to learn a new API. The average spreadsheet user is likely to stare at the new spreadsheet menus blankly until someone holds their hand and shows them where to click. And shows them again later that day, and the next day, and so on...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @07:12AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @07:12AM (#203210)
      The average spreadsheet user is likely to stare at the new spreadsheet menus blankly until someone holds their hand and shows them where to click. And shows them again later that day, and the next day, and so on...

      Until the boss decides that they're incompetent at their job and tells them that they're fired. If it's your job to push spreadsheets then you better damn well learn it, just as if it's your job to program in some API.