[Discuss] can you copyright an API?

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 04:19:04PM -0400, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> On 04/23/2012 08:58 AM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
> > I loves me some android, so I don't want to see any harm come to it, but in
> > this case, I think google f**ked up.  There were lots of ways they could
> > have avoided all this mess... For one, they could have started with the GPL
> > openjdk.  Even if they threw out and rewrote 99% of the code in there, as
> > long as it started with code that Sun released under GPL, and they continue
> > to develop all their modifications under GPL, then oracle wouldn't have a
> > case against google...  But google didn't decide to do that.  
> 
> No, that actually wouldn't have solved the problem.  Sun granted
> automatic royalty-free patent licenses only for java implementations
> that met the full java specification.  

The GPL explicitly grants you the right to modify and distribute any
code distributed under it as you see fit, provided you distribute the
modified source.  How could starting with the GPL-licensed code *not*
solve the problem?

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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