APIs Can Now Be Copyrighted

[Renzatic]

Looks like Google lost their appeal

So programmers, tell me exactly how much more difficult your job is gonna be now?

Tell me how safe Linux is, since it's heavily based on Unix APIs. Same thing with OSX. If AT&T or Novell decide to go back and copyright their APIs, couldn't they apply for protection, and sue Apple and Linus Torvalds over using open source non-licensed Unix variants as the base of their operating system?

How bad is this gonna be?

 

[MacNut]

Looks like Google lost their appeal

So programmers, tell me exactly how much more difficult your job is gonna be now?

Tell me how safe Linux is, since it's heavily based on Unix APIs. Same thing with OSX. If AT&T or Novell decide to go back and copyright their APIs, couldn't they apply for protection, and sue Apple and Linus Torvalds over using open source non-licensed Unix variants as the base of their operating system?

How bad is this gonna be?

Fair use as I understand it means the owner allowed others to use the code as they want. If Oracle never gave a fair use license does Google or anyone else have a right to use it without licensing it?

 

[Macky-Mac]

Fair use as I understand it means the owner allowed others to use the code as they want. If Oracle never gave a fair use license does Google or anyone else have a right to use it without licensing it?

that's not what "fair use" means, you have it backwards......it refers to a situation where somebody is using copyright material WITHOUT the owner's approval. The theory is that under some circumstances it's permissible to use some material without the owner's approval

edit; perhaps you're confusing "fair use" and the idea of free use?

 

[gnasher729]

Looks like Google lost their appeal

So programmers, tell me exactly how much more difficult your job is gonna be now?

Tell me how safe Linux is, since it's heavily based on Unix APIs. Same thing with OSX. If AT&T or Novell decide to go back and copyright their APIs, couldn't they apply for protection, and sue Apple and Linus Torvalds over using open source non-licensed Unix variants as the base of their operating system?

How bad is this gonna be?

There are multiple misunderstandings here. First, you can't go back and copyright something. You get the copyright at the point where something is written. Second, you need to examine very careful what actually can be copyrighted. Maybe that's why many Unix based header files have no parameter names and comments. Third, BSD quite certainly has a license.

 

[localoid]

There are multiple misunderstandings here. First, you can't go back and copyright something. You get the copyright at the point where something is written. Second, you need to examine very careful what actually can be copyrighted. Maybe that's why many Unix based header files have no parameter names and comments. Third, BSD quite certainly has a license.

Actually, you can "go back" and register a copyright in the U.S., days, months, weeks, or years after the "work" was originally created.

In the U.S., the copyright itself is secured automatically upon creation (of a work in "fixed form"). The formal registration of the copyright claim, with the U.S. Copyright Office can be done, at a point, after creation.

See: Page 3 of Copyright Basics, or Copyright Basics: What is Copywrite Law?

"Copyright protection exists from the moment a work is created in a fixed, tangible form of expression. The copyright immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author, or those deriving their rights through the author, can rightfully claim copyright. In the case of works made for hire, the employer—not the writer—is considered the author."​