The race to replace Redis [LWN.net]

The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 7, 2024 19:35 UTC (Sun) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: The race to replace Redis by immibis
Parent article: The race to replace Redis

I thought in computing, "clone" meant "copy from scratch". Which, legally, is NOT a derivative work. Otherwise, SCOG could have easily won their lawsuit.

In copyright law, a true computing clone cannot infringe copyright. Which means copyright licences are worth about as much as scrap paper.

Cheers,
Wol

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The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 7, 2024 20:13 UTC (Sun) by immibis (subscriber, #105511) [Link] (4 responses)

There would likely be a fair use exception to copying the Linux API, but the work that copied it would still have copied it. See Oracle vs Google.

The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 8, 2024 12:14 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (3 responses)

And to the best of my knowledge Oracle lost that fair and square.

Google's primary defence was "APIs cannot be copyrighted" and, iirc, they won that by a slam dunk in the District Court. Oracle managed to get it overturned at the appeal level, but wasn't the appeal overturned?

Cheers,
Wol

The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 8, 2024 15:03 UTC (Mon) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link] (2 responses)

I think you may be wrong. APIs were found to be copyrightable. However, there are some defences available to copyright infringement, including fair use. And Google eventually prevailed on a fair use defence.

IMU.

The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 8, 2024 16:18 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

I was worried about that. So I guess it didn't go to the Supremes, because the argument there probably was "Google won anyway, so why should we hear it?". Ouch!

If it comes up again, the new defendant should be free to make the same arguments that APIs are not copyrightable, and appeal any loss, but hopefully the "fair use" argument will put any predators off. Not a pleasant state of affairs.

Cheers,
Wol

The race to replace Redis

Posted Apr 9, 2024 20:06 UTC (Tue) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

It went to the Supreme Court: https://arstechnica.com/series/series-oracle-v-google/

They ruled that Google's use was fair use.