101–110 of 165 posts
Why do people care what the supreme court rules? The US is no longer a country ruled by law. If anything the more ridiculous and barbaric the government becomes the better as it will only swell the ranks of those who realize the government is illegitimate.
"declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection." Would this apply to REST APIs too? Someone needs to explain to them that that would be like being able to copyright how files are organised in a drawer, how books are organised on shelves in a Library, how a book is indexed, how departments in a company are named, how streets are numbered, how camp…
> Would this apply to REST APIs too? I wouldn't think so. REST APIs are just called APIs, but they're really communication protocols. As those don't have a fixed description (i.e. you can describe the same protocol in different words) -- unlike APIs -- they are not copyrightable. For good or bad, APIs aren't just a description of how to do something. They are fixed. If you write down how files should be organized in…
A way of looking at REST APIs in the context of this Oracle case would be to imagine a Stripe clone appearing with an identical API to Stripe's, to the point of being interoperable with existing Stripe client code/libraries. Could Stripe claim copyright over the way their API is designed in this situation? If Oracle gets its way, then perhaps.
Programming is in this odd position somewhere between the structure of math and the creativity of writing. Some things feel as obvious as basic addition, which clearly should not be copyrightable, while other things feel as clever as complex poems, which clearly should be copyrightable. I am not a copyright expert, but in my opinion APIs usually fall closer to the structured math half of programming. ex. GET, POST, P…
When I lived in Java based environments I would have agreed with you. But, having moved on and seen C#, Ruby/Rails, Objective-C, etc. Seeing how differently APIs have been implemented I have an appreciation for the creativity possible in API design. But, there seems to be a balance, is the API of a single class copyrightable? No, probably not. Is the API of a large system like Java's copyrightable, I really do think…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but it adds copyright trolls to the mix. At least you can count on patents to expire eventually, copyrights are forever in software years.
Patents are forever in software years. Copyrights are longer than that.
Another win for lawyers. Unfortunately now the USA is goign to try to push this ruling all over the world with TIPP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investm... ). It's not enough that the USA destroys their own entrepreneurial spirit but everybody else as well.
I've always wondered if there is not a general conspiracy of lawyers to protect their "industry". They have all interests to keep the current patent system, as well as extending copyright protection to anything: it keeps the demand for lawyers high. Of course you have the same view of software and/or system engineer, who build broken systems just to justify billing more maintenance :)
But there are definitely lobbies that exist to further the legal industry. The trial lawyers lobby is HUGE in the democratic party. Probably the most influential because they have money but also direct connections. They were sorta behind killing the patent reform act from 2013 because it had "fee shifting.
The more appropriate charge is that lawyers overvalue the law and litigation as a whole and it creates a bias. But the recent courts have given away a lot of power that they didn't' have to. Courts uphold arbitration terms in contracts, SCOTUS made it harder to sue in a series of civil procedure cases, they give deference to administrative agencies.
I work in the patent industry, mostly on the defense side, and a lot of my coworkers really really hate patent trolls. They see first hand how shitty these trolls behave. I recognize their behavior is paying off my student loans, so I don't get so angry. I'm sort of shocked how personally they take it.
But professionally they attack patent troll ferociously. Many big firms wrote amicus briefs supporting crack downs on the trolls even though they'd lose a lot of money if it actually works.
"declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection." Would this apply to REST APIs too? Someone needs to explain to them that that would be like being able to copyright how files are organised in a drawer, how books are organised on shelves in a Library, how a book is indexed, how departments in a company are named, how streets are numbered, how camp…
> Would this apply to REST APIs too? I wouldn't think so. REST APIs are just called APIs, but they're really communication protocols. As those don't have a fixed description (i.e. you can describe the same protocol in different words) -- unlike APIs -- they are not copyrightable. For good or bad, APIs aren't just a description of how to do something. They are fixed. If you write down how files should be organized in…
An API, by itself (By definition of being an interface), does nothing. It's just a description of how one would ask the system to perform some function. It may be written in a way such that it describes what the system will do to produce a result. But that's merely descriptive, not functional.
For this reason I really think it's a moot point.
The unfortunate aspect of this is every hour / day government employees continue to debate this is another hour / day those government employees could be doing something useful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm asking that based on what I've heard from a friend who runs a VC backed company. He said he needed VC largely because an incumbent in his category decided to sue him rather than compete. The lawsuit was rather frivolous, but when you get a bunch of people with a dim view of computer programming involved, then you need lawyers. And lawyers are EXPENSIVE. They are much much much more expensive than computer program…
That's a pretty nightmarish scenario, and I sympathize with your friend. However, it does nothing to convince me that most laws are used for evil.