phc-discussions - RE: [PHC] PHS API copyright?

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Message-ID: <008a01cf6be8$b6df0e90$249d2bb0$@acm.org>
Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 17:42:24 -0700
From: "Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@....org>
To: <discussions@...sword-hashing.net>
Subject: RE: [PHC] PHS API copyright?

Google did not lose the lawsuit.  (I don’t know where the $1B amount comes from, either.)  It has been remanded for retrial of Google’s fair-use defense.  What Google lost was the judge’s earlier ruling that there was no infringement because there was no copyright.  The appeal resulted in there being copyright, and Google had already been found to have infringed it.  But it isn’t over until fair-use is resolved, assuming there is no settlement first.

With regard to whether the structure, sequence, and organization (SSO) of an API definition (e.g, header files, class declarations – excluding implementations) is copyrightable, the ruling makes for interesting reading about how such can have copyright and also what the four considerations are in having an infringement be fair use.  (Note that the issue is not about using an API but appropriating the definition of an API.)

See http://cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/13-1021.Opinion.5-7-2014.1.PDF for an extensive account given in the ruling itself in the “Background” section.

-- Dennis E. Hamilton
    dennis.hamilton@....org <mailto:dennis.hamilton@....org>     +1-206-779-9430
    https://keybase.io/orcmid  PGP F96E 89FF D456 628A

From: Bill Cox [mailto:waywardgeek@...il.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 9, 2014 17:26
To: discussions@...sword-hashing.net
Subject: [PHC] PHS API copyright?

Google just lost a $1B lawsuit on appeal to Oracle, who claims they copyrighted the Java API.  We PHC contestants promised to put our code in the FOSS space, but did the PHC give up any copyright claim to the PHS function?  We're potentially all infringing!

Just kidding... who would copyright an API?  A more offensive idea hasn't come across my news feed since the last time a petty dictator gassed his own people.  Imagine if the copyright on printf lasts 100 years.

Bill

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