White House sides with Oracle, tells Supreme Court APIs are copyrightable

[Victorious Secret]

 

 

Google v. Oracle: Unlicensed use of APIs might be a fair use, US says.

 

 

I don't know where I stand on this. On one hand I think that our current system needs to be taken behind the barn and double tapped but on the other hand, our system is the system that currently exists and you don't get to blatantly violate it and not expect to get caught.

 

That it is Google give me less sympathy. Its not like they couldn't afford to license what they needed from Oracle and its not like Oracle couldn't take a massive haircut on their fees to make it happen - greed is just good in this respect. Or is it ultimate cheapness in not doing things the easy way?

 

Oh well, lets see how this one plays out. 

 

 

 

The dispute centers on Google copying names, declarations, and header lines of the Java APIs in Android. Oracle filed suit, and in 2012, a San Francisco federal judge sided with Google. The judge ruled that the code in question could not be copyrighted. Oracle prevailed on appeal, however. A federal appeals court ruled that the "declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection."

 

Google maintained that the code at issue is not entitled to copyright protection because it constitutes a "method of operation" or "system" that allows programs to communicate with one another.

 

"That argument is incorrect," the administration told the justices.

 

In an amicus brief, computer scientists urged (PDF) the Supreme Court to reverse last year's appeals court decision. "The Federal Circuit’s decision poses a significant threat to the technology sector and to the public," they wrote. "If it is allowed to stand, Oracle and others will have an unprecedented and dangerous power over the future of innovation. API creators would have veto rights over any developer who wants to create a compatible program—regardless of whether she copies any literal code from the original API implementation. That, in turn, would upset the settled business practices that have enabled the American computer industry to flourish, and choke off many of the system’s benefits to consumers."

 

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/white-house-sides-with-oracle-tells-supreme-court-apis-are-copyrightable/

[Guest Kloaked]

Google done got rekt.

[Norman_the_Owl]

I'm pretty sure google can afford to pay fees to use this API...

[Trik'Stari]

I'm with Google on this one. Companies need to stop copyrighting everything under the sun. I'm fairly certain that the way things are going, someone somewhere will copyright what I just said, and sue me for saying it.

 

Yes, Google could afford it, but does it actually cause any harm to Oracle for them using it?

[othertomperson]

Companies need to stop copyrighting everything under the sun.

 

i c wut u did thar

[Xorbot]

This is definitely a slippery slope.

 

While this works for a few large, powerful, rich companies, if the ruling applies to everyone equally as it always should, then we will quickly hit a limit.  This will occur when the tens of thousands of indie and small studio game developers as well as software startups define how their libraries and software operates (an API, Application Programming Interface).  This means some random company in Kansas who decided that "SaveToDisk(Callback* callback)" to save a file to disk and call the callback function now has copyright on this process (yes, a very rudimentary example).  Everyone will have to pay a licensing fee to use this so-called "API".

 

Sure, the underlying code and algorithms of "SaveToDisk" can be copyright and even patented, but the pure naming of that function and what it is meant to do is now also copyrightable?  That is quite preposterous.  Yes, I am aware that "API" has many interpretations in today's state of the tech industry.  This include my most recent job where the company called the web server communication the "API".  However, I am trying to keep this simple for purposes of discussion.

[Misanthrope]

Too ashamed to do a proper Thanks Obama joke.

[Trik'Stari]

i c wut u did thar

Seriously, they might as well just copyright the actual f**king sun at this point, and then charge everyone money for using it, plants and animals alike.

 

It's not like they haven't tried to do it with F**KING RAINWATER. http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/

[Dabombinable]

Seriously, they might as well just copyright the actual f**king sun at this point, and then charge everyone money for using it, plants and animals alike.

 

It's not like they haven't tried to do it with F**KING RAINWATER. http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/

TBH, that's on par with my expectations from nestle.

[Trik'Stari]

TBH, that's on par with my expectations from nestle.

I actually never new how evil they were until I heard about that article.

[DEDRICK]

Seriously, they might as well just copyright the actual f**king sun at this point, and then charge everyone money for using it, plants and animals alike.

 

It's not like they haven't tried to do it with F**KING RAINWATER. http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/

 

I think he meant like, Sun Microsystems which is owned by Oracle

[Trik'Stari]

I think he meant like, Sun Microsystems which is owned by Oracle

Oh....didn't even think about that.

[Sidiox]

I think this is very much something that needs to be looked at in a case by case scenerio because as pointed out above simple stuff shouldn't be copyrightable. But a really elaborate API could use it. 

[Dabombinable]

I actually never new how evil they were until I heard about that article.

Its not the company as such that is bad, its the assholes in charge. Kind of like other companies and governments.

[Norman_the_Owl]

Seriously, they might as well just copyright the actual f**king sun at this point, and then charge everyone money for using it, plants and animals alike.

It's not like they haven't tried to do it with F**KING RAINWATER. http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/

A woman in Spain tried to claim ownership of the sun for spain. Said Spain would start charging everyone for sunlight in order to fix their economy

[Real_PhillBert]

From the very little I know on this subject, I have to side with google. 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Oracle ... ah yes, the ones responsible for the death of OpenOffice

[Trik'Stari]

A woman in Spain tried to claim ownership of the sun for spain. Said Spain would start charging everyone for sunlight in order to fix their economy

[TwistedDictator]

This is just stupid. If oracle win its not good for anyone, it does not only effect Google but many other businesses and even a lot of coders in general.

[WanderingFool]

The way I look at it, copyrights should only really belong to the entirety of the work and no API's.  Yes you could make the argument that complex API's should be copyrightable, but my argument is it is about the implementation of the API's.  Otherwise things like WINE would not exist (if Microsoft wished it)...or even emulators (they are emulating or reimplementing portions of the game hardware's API)

[Toddwjp]

but apis cant be incredible simple and basic. surely a case by case basis should be taken on them

[Victorious Secret]

but apis cant be incredible simple and basic. surely a case by case basis should be taken on them

 

Its the SCOTUS, they'll visit this issue once, set the precedent and then move on to never touch it again.