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White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

arstechnica.com

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Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#31

Post by HillRat »

sambeau wrote: post #19

"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…

[T]hat would be like being able to copyright ... how books are organised on shelves in a Library

Probably not the best example to give, since the Dewey Decimal System is actually a copyrighted product(http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=11&ti=1,11...). Similar to how the AMA has copyrighted the ICD codes.

I do wonder if using identical function names, but different argument names, would be sufficient to escape infringement.

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#33

Post by abhorrence »

sambeau wrote: post #19

"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…

So speaking of how books are organized on the shelves at many libraries... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#34

Post by codecamper »

wmeredith wrote: post #25
codecamper wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how often are laws used positively?

This is an overly cynical view. The vast majority of laws are used positively. The are the foundation of this country. When they are abused it makes headlines (sometimes). When everyone gets to work and back safely and can afford to pay the mortgage and buy a big screen, it's just business as usual.

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 programmers. And then it becomes not so fun to run a company. It was about writing great software. Now it's about defending yourself in court. Total nightmare.

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#35

Post by noblethrasher »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #17
rincebrain wrote: post #9

It's not obvious from the LWN article, but the reason it says "White House" is that lawyers from the DoJ have filed an Amicus Curiae ("Friend of the Court") brief informing them of their stance on the topic. [1] [2] [1] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/white-house-sides... [2] - http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/google...

Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch? I have always assumed it meant the office of the President and perhaps his cabinet...

It's more customary to use the word "Administration" or "Obama Administration" instead.

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#36

Post by soup10 »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #17
rincebrain wrote: post #9

It's not obvious from the LWN article, but the reason it says "White House" is that lawyers from the DoJ have filed an Amicus Curiae ("Friend of the Court") brief informing them of their stance on the topic. [1] [2] [1] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/white-house-sides... [2] - http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/google...

Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch? I have always assumed it meant the office of the President and perhaps his cabinet...

You gotta remember Obama hasn't written a line of code in his life and has someone literally tells him what his opinions and stances are on technology issues.

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#37

Post by themgt »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #17
rincebrain wrote: post #9

It's not obvious from the LWN article, but the reason it says "White House" is that lawyers from the DoJ have filed an Amicus Curiae ("Friend of the Court") brief informing them of their stance on the topic. [1] [2] [1] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/white-house-sides... [2] - http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/google...

Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch? I have always assumed it meant the office of the President and perhaps his cabinet...

It's an amicus brief filed by DoJ with the Solicitor General's name of it - a man directly appointed by Obama in 2011. In more ways than even other DoJ briefs [1], there is a straight line from this to Obama, and surely if he wished to intervene to alter or prevent the submission of this brief he would have been able to.

To answer your question yes, in general, actions taken with direct authority or direction from high-level appointees of the President are described by the media as "White House" actions, with good reason.

[1] http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/app/briefs/fisher_appellee_...

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#38

Post by eropple »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #17
rincebrain wrote: post #9

It's not obvious from the LWN article, but the reason it says "White House" is that lawyers from the DoJ have filed an Amicus Curiae ("Friend of the Court") brief informing them of their stance on the topic. [1] [2] [1] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/white-house-sides... [2] - http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/google...

Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch? I have always assumed it meant the office of the President and perhaps his cabinet...

It's called metonymy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#39

Post by russell_h »

HillRat wrote: post #31
sambeau wrote: post #19

"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…

[T]hat would be like being able to copyright ... how books are organised on shelves in a Library Probably not the best example to give, since the Dewey Decimal System is actually a copyrighted product( http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=11&ti=1,11... ). Similar to how the AMA has copyrighted the ICD codes. I do wonder if using identical function names, but different argument names, would be sufficient…

I'm sure that would be found to be a derivative work.

The entire thing is derived from this doctrine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure,_sequence_and_organiz...

Re: White House Sides with Oracle, Tells Supreme Court APIs Are Copyrightable

#40

Post by billsix »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #12

On the one hand, this would have serious implications for compatible FOSS reimplementations of proprietary APIs, such as Wine, libc, emulators, etc. On the other hand, this would make it far easier to enforce copyleft licenses like the GPL. I'm one of the people who provided text and examples filed in the EFF's amicus brief against, and on balance I'm not a fan of stricter copyright like this, but it's interesting to…

I'd be curious to hear RMS's stance on the issue, but I'm guessing he would agree with Oracle. http://clisp.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/clisp/clisp/doc/Why-...
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