[License-discuss] Copyright on APIs

[VanL]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 12:46 PM Thorsten Glaser <tg at mirbsd.de> wrote:
[trim lots of Java]


> Let’s make a Java™ source file out of this, which will then be
> comprised of solely the API description, but no creative parts yet:


[trim more Java]

You just put your finger on the issue: Are APIs creative in a copyrightable
sense? You assert, without argument, that they are not.

Even from a European perspective, I am not 100% sure this is the case. In *SAS
Institute, Inc*. v *World Programming Limited* (C-406/10), the CJEU was
asked to interpret the Software Directive in a case where WPL had developed
a competing product with similar functionality to SAS’s product. WPL’s
product permitted users to use the SAS programming language to execute
commands and perform functions in WPL’s software with the same effects and
outputs as if they had used SAS’s software. WPL did not have access to the
source code or object code of the SAS system. Instead it lawfully acquired
copies from SAS and copied the functionality by writing its own code.

This is similar to, but distinguishable from, the Google/Oracle/Free
Software case. Would the court necessarily find the same way if WPL had 1)
access to the source code, and 2) directly copied some elements, just as
Google did? Perhaps - but that case has not been decided yet, even in the
EU.

Thanks,
Van
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