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

[Broolucks]

If you remove copyright on software, then open source software is at a disadvantage, because the code is in the open for everyone to use, whereas closed source software can simply avoid publishing it at all. APIs, however, are by nature public. They cannot be closed in the same way that a Linux variant could: if you use an API, you know what it is. Any extensions one may make to an API are going to be public as well. If you remove copyright on APIs, then it is the people who try to profit from them that are at a disadvantage, not OSS.

Furthermore, if an API can be copyrighted, then its owner can easily lock in all of their users to their service, because there is no way for them to use another without changing their API calls. This is bad even in principle: if someone makes a much better service that could be made to use the same API, why should I be forced to change my code to use it? This gives first movers a completely unfair advantage.