[License-discuss] Copyright on APIs

[John Cowan]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 9:20 AM Luis Villa <luis at lu.is> wrote:


> I dislike this, but the Federal Circuit would tell you that the APIs are
> expressive source code.
>

In their evil little hearts, the F.C. seems to believe that once you write
down an idea that's *your idea*, and novelty etc. are mere formalities.
And you own it not just for twenty years, but potentially for centuries.
(One of Jefferson's letters, which is older than the United States, will
still be in U.S. copyright in 2050.  Quel scandale!)

Ah well, in other news, all published pre-1923 sound recordings come out of
copyright in three more years, which is very good because most of them are
orphans anyhow.


John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
He made the Legislature meet at one-horse tank-towns out in the alfalfa
belt, so that hardly nobody could get there and most of the leaders
would stay home and let him go to work and do things as he pleased.
    --H.L. Mencken's translation of the Declaration of Independence
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