US Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle [LWN.net]

US Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle

Posted Apr 6, 2021 1:04 UTC (Tue) by xtifr (guest, #143)
Parent article: US Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle

I'm not entirely sure here, but it seems to me that they have very cleverly rendered the question of whether APIs are copyrightable to be basically irrelevant!

What it looks like they're saying is that because the API was copied for compatibility reasons, and because this is the norm in the industry, Google's actions were (at worst) fair use. The thing is, I can't imagine any other reason for copying an API!

So, basically, as long as your goal is compatibility (and what other goal could you have?), you should be fine! This is basically saying that APIs can't be protected under normal circumstances, even if they're technically copyrighted!

If that's really what it means, then I'd have to say that it's about as favorable a ruling as I could have hoped for, even if it does look, at first, to be overly narrow!

US Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle

Posted Apr 6, 2021 12:33 UTC (Tue) by dottedmag (subscriber, #18590) [Link]

One of the major points discussed was the fact that Android does not compete with Java SE, being different platforms, so other kinds of API copying may be found to be not covered by "fair use".

US Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle

Posted Apr 6, 2021 13:00 UTC (Tue) by danielthompson (subscriber, #97243) [Link]

I particularly the comment in the syllabus about: "Unlike many other computer programs, the value of the copied lines is in significant part derived from the investment of users (here computer programmers) who have learned the API’s system.".

This recognizes that the value of an API arises, in part, from skilled people learning to use it rather than through the effort of the author and that this shared investment by all parties weighs in favour of fair-use.