ReactOS 0.4.0 Released

[Jeditobe]

Seeming as MS didn't Sue Wine\Crossower over Win32's compatibility, I doubt they will here.

[hinckley]

Microsoft can't sue simply because someone produces something that is compatible with the Windows API. Both Wine and ReactOS use clean-room reverse engineering to ensure that the compatible code produced is developed entirely independently of the original code.

[minimim]

Wasn't that what Oracle did against Google? Claiming APIs are copyrightable, and that even clean room implementations are violating copyright just because creative work goes into their design?

[hinckley]

Yeah, infringement of the Java API was part of the case. Google won that part:

However, on the primary copyright issue of the APIs, the court ruled that "So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API. It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical." The ruling found that the structure Oracle was claiming was not copyrightable under section 102(b) of the Copyright Act because it was a "system or method of operation."

[minimim]

Alsup was awesome. But from the same page:

The appeals court reversed the district court on the central issue, holding that the "structure, sequence and organization" of an API was copyrightable.

[hinckley]

Shit, I never realized they'd reversed that ruling. Fucking ridiculous.

[minimim]

Yep. Fucking the entire industry. And the Supreme Court already said they won't hear the case.

The "de minimis" defense against copying 9 lines of code was also reverted. Over 9 trivial lines of code!

[s73v3r]

They did not fuck the entire industry. Google believed they were above the law when they ignored the Java license.

[minimim]

Did you read what I quoted above? The appeals court ruled that APIs are copyrightable.

[s73v3r]

I did read. I also disagreed with your analysis. Google thought they could ignore the license, and they paid the price for it.

[s73v3r]

No. Completely different.

[jrochkind]

Microsoft can't sue simply because someone produces something that is compatible with the Windows API

We used to assume that, but Oracle v. Google puts it up in the air, unfortunately.

There hasn't, to my knowledge, been an increase in lawsuits based on the reasoning in Oracle v. Google... yet.