Oracle vs Google: Copyright Claims Must Remain

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @08:20AM from the write-once-sue-everyone dept.

swandives writes "More in the Oracle/Google patent infringement saga. Oracle says no court has ever found that APIs for software like Java are ineligible for copyright protection. The claims were made in its objection to Google's request that the court make a summary judgment on Oracle's copyright allegations. In early August, Google asked the judge to rule that Google doesn't infringe Oracle copyright in its implementation of Android. In an objection to that request, Oracle asked the judge to let the charge go to trial. Earlier, Judge Alsup denied Google's attempt to get a potentially damaging e-mail redacted. Looks like this one could take a while."

1 of 166 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:API? by 3vi1 · 2011-08-23 09:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

You totally missed the point. You're talking about copyright on the code implementing the API - while the real topic here is whether or not the API calls (function names) themselves can be copywritten.
And of course the answer is 'no', because that prevents any and all compatible implementations. In fact, you'd be in violation simply for writing a program that called the API - since you have to use the function names in the calling program.
Oracle's lawyers know nothing about programming, apparently. If things worked like they're trying to say they do, Microsoft could sue anyone that made software for Windows because at some point you used a header that included the Windows API function names.