Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 31st May 2012 21:41 UTC
And thus, it ends. Despite a never-ending stream of doom and gloom from Oracle/Microsoft-funded 'pundits' regarding Google and Android (six hundred billion trillion gazillion eurodollars in damages!!1!), judge Alsup has just squashed all of Oracle's chances with a ruling that is good news for those of us who truly care about this wonderful industry: APIs are not copyrightable. Alsup: "To accept Oracle's claim would be to allow anyone to copyright one version of code to carry out a system of commands and thereby bar all others from writing their own different versions to carry out all or part of the same commands. No holding has ever endorsed such a sweeping proposition." Supreme Court, Ellison?
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RE[2]: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual
by renox on Fri 1st Jun 2012 11:12
in reply to "RE: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual"
Member since:2005-07-06
Nothing in this decision contradicts anything Mueller has said. You can dislike the guys overall opinions and direction, but he does do an excellent job at separating what is facts and what is opinion, and does present all the facts.
You're kidding? His report on Oracle loss is merely FUD stressing that it can be overturned on appeal. That's *always* the case, so he is just restating the obvious to hide that the judgement is a loss for Oracle, even if the issue isn't settled yet.
[cut]of course a sufficiently large, complex and creative API would be copyrightable
Of course?? In Europe, they explicit banned copyrighting APIs. IMHO the judge is just making sure that his judgment won't be overturned in appeal by stressing that his judgement only apply to this case..
RE[3]: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual
by lemur2 on Fri 1st Jun 2012 12:45
in reply to "RE[2]: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual"
Member since:2007-02-17
"[cut]of course a sufficiently large, complex and creative API would be copyrightable
Of course?? In Europe, they explicit banned copyrighting APIs. IMHO the judge is just making sure that his judgment won't be overturned in appeal by stressing that his judgement only apply to this case.. "
True. Remember also that, regardless of the judge stressing that his judgement only applies to this case, the way that the legal system works is that this decision will set a precedent for all future alleged copyright cases involving use of APIs.
RE[3]: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual
by vaette on Fri 1st Jun 2012 13:07
in reply to "RE[2]: Florian Mueller is wrong as usual"
Member since:2008-08-09
Yes, of course. If I write poetry in the form of Java interfaces it remains perfectly copyrightable. There is no magic about programming languages that make creative works impossible to copyright. It just happens to be hard to meet the requirements of copyrightability when it comes to common APIs, but it is perfectly certain that there are copyrightable material that can be expressed as APIs.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:35 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/11/13 17:07 UTC
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/10/13 23:13 UTC
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/08/13 14:57 UTC
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/07/13 11:40 UTC
This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/04/13 12:45 UTC
Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
Linked by nfeske on 05/31/13 10:12 UTC
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/29/13 16:59 UTC
At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!More Features »
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Member since:
2008-08-09
Nothing in this decision contradicts anything Mueller has said. You can dislike the guys overall opinions and direction, but he does do an excellent job at separating what is facts and what is opinion, and does present all the facts.
I also think it is important to note, as Mueller does, that while this is the end of the line for Oracle (pending appeal), that Alsup very clearly did not rule APIs uncopyrightable in general:
"This order does not hold that Java API packages are free for all to use without license. It does not hold that the structure, sequence and organization of all computer programs may be stolen. Rather, it holds on the specific facts of this case, the particular elements replicated by Google were free for all to use under the Copyright Act."
Which makes sense; of course a sufficiently large, complex and creative API would be copyrightable, but it has to make that bar just like all other works under copyright. For most APIs this would be difficult, but in rich data modelling languages for example it would most likely be a fairly common occurence.