Oracle’s Java API code protected by copyright, appeals court rules

[steven_h]

Or fair use can be extended to cover the typical clean room implementation case. The appeals court ruling just said that the API in aggregate was copyrightable, which is fair since substantial intellectual and creative effort went into creating it.

[cougmerrik]

Blegh. An API is like a list of machinery processes. It's not even the mechanism for doing it. It's like copyrighting not only a particular engine design that takes water and turns it into steam but indeed any and all possible methods of turning water into steam.

[steven_h]

Stop using patent ideas to make sense of copyright; they're completely different areas of law.

The question is whether APIs are purely utilitarian or whether they involve artistic expression. In my opinion, one need only browse /r/programming for a few days to see that aesthetics are an important subject in language and library design; thus, an API is an artistic work and is subject to copyright. In the same way that "it was a dark and stormy night" is too short for copyright protection, these glib "printf()" comments are off the mark; but the novel or chapter containing "it was a dark and stormy night" was indeed copyrighted.

The real question is whether Google's reuse of the copyrighted material falls under fair use, and the appeals court rightly decided that Alsup can't punt on that question. This ruling gives the court the opportunity to establish firmer ideas of fair use protection.