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Finally, a judge ruled correctly: Programming APIs are not copyrightable!
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275Judge Alsup Rules: Oracle's Java APIs are Not Copyrightable (Order as text) ~pj
Feast your eyes on this! Oracle's Java APIs, specifically as used by Google, are not copyrightable. "Therefore, Oracle’s claim based on Google’s copying of the 37 API packages, including their structure, sequence and organization is DISMISSED," the judge writes. I haven't read everything yet myself -- it's 41 pages long -- so let's read it together. But here's the key paragraph from the Summary:
The overall name tree, of course, has creative elements but it is also a precise command structure — a utilitarian and functional set of symbols, each to carry out a pre-assigned function. This command structure is a system or method of operation under Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act and, therefore, cannot be copyrighted. Duplication of the command structure is necessary for interoperability....
Contrary to Oracle, copyright law does not confer ownership over any and all ways to implement a function or specification, no matter how creative the copyrighted implementation or specification may be. The Act confers ownership only over the specific way in which the author wrote out his version. Others are free to write their own implementation to accomplish the identical function, for, importantly, ideas, concepts and functions cannot be monopolized by copyright.
Contrary to Oracle, copyright law does not confer ownership over any and all ways to implement a function or specification, no matter how creative the copyrighted implementation or specification may be. The Act confers ownership only over the specific way in which the author wrote out his version. Others are free to write their own implementation to accomplish the identical function, for, importantly, ideas, concepts and functions cannot be monopolized by copyright.
I am sooooo relieved. So, so, so relieved. There is also an order regarding equitable defenses, and if someone could help me do a text version of that, I'll get started on the order on copyrightability.
This is a relief! If Oracle was able to assert copyright over APIs, it would make IP law, especially as it applies to software development, even more brain-damaged than it already is.
We've already got to deal with the DMCA and patent trolls. Making APIs subjected to copyright would add yet more stupidity to an already-broken system.
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