Last month, federal US court had overturned an earlier court ruling that allowed Google to build Oracle’s Java API into their freakishly popular mobile OS, Android.
Java programmers are able to work on Android, thanks to these APIs or application programming interfaces, which essentially are the building blocks that enables software to interoperate with other software ie. Hootsuite pulling Twitter newsfeeds to different devices
What the new ruling boils down to is that these APIs are particular expressions of creativity which are intellectual property, copyrightable and therefore must be protected, so that innovation may continue to flourish.
Of course the software making industry is in a furor over this ruling which has potentially damaging impact upon the ecosystem : if software companies have copyright over their APIs, it opens the door to frivolous lawsuits, not to mention new web services may have to start programming from scratch.
And what about the gazillions of existing web services that have been built over the years, secure in the belief that APIs are freely offered and that they have the right to use it to build useful services?
One law professor James Grimmelmann, observes that, “This (ruling) is an opinion written by judges whose understanding of software comes from reading other judges’ opinions about software.”
Another, a legal blogger, Sarah Jeong accurately sums up the situation as “getting mad at a screwdriver, for looking like a screwdriver.”
IT BYTES BACK! says: If the new ruling stands, it also implies, “From henceforth, all screwdrivers may not perform screwdriver duties without permission from the relevant authorities.”
If that isn’t the real innovation stifler, I don’t know what is.
