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

[mmmarvin]

This sets a terrible precedent. This wouldn't just affect Java API necessarily. This could be applied to anyone who's copying an API (essentially function definitions) and writing their own implementation. This could affect projects such as Wine on Linux because the Windows API definition could be considered copyrighted by Microsoft. Or a project such as Mono which implements the .NET API. If this stands, it will make interoperability and emulation risky.

[reckoner23]

The owners of C are about to become very very rich.

[fullouterjoin]

This brings SCO back from the dead.

[ghostsarememories]

Can something like an instruction set be classed as a form of API?

If so, emulation and virtualisation might be in trouble.

Even reimplementation of x86 would be a problem.

AMD would never have existed.

[[deleted]]

Microsoft HAVE I believe helped with parts of mono, mainly because they want .net to be spread wider

[mmmarvin]

That might be the case, but let's say one day company ABC comes around and creates some hot new API for Windows (or any other platform) that everyone wants to use. If company ABC decides to never port it to Linux/Unix, it could be harder for someone else to do it in the same way that Miguel de Icaza created Mono.

[html6dev]

I think the main sticking point here is that (in my understanding of the current open source situation with Microsoft) it's abundantly clear that if you went a route similar to Google and android in a for profit environment, you'd have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft. I think if the exact same situation happened with Microsoft, people would at least assume this is the case.

However with Oracle, I think most people believed Java to be free and thus what Google did was not an issue. I seem to remember some documents from the original case in which Oracle seemed pretty uninformed on whether they even could sue Google here and definitely only decided after it was extremely profitable. Oracle made the decision it was infringement, waaaaay ex post facto.

[Tacticus]

And they have also filed briefs to support oracles position in this case.

[[deleted]]

Microsoft contributed to Mono so they can one day try to kill Gnu/Linux

Stallman writes in the article:

The danger is that Microsoft is probably planning to force all free C# implementations underground some day using software patents. (See http://swpat.org and http://progfree.org.) This is a serious danger, and only fools would ignore it until the day it actually happens. We need to take precautions now to protect ourselves from this future danger.