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Judge Alsup Will Decide if API's are still not Copyrightable ~pj | 503 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
the difference between a telephone and a telephone number
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 21 2012 @ 11:40 PM EDT
Good one! Let's call up java.lang.Math and ask for abs(). I
like that one. Nothing like knowing a value absolutely, with
absolute certainty, for all time.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Judge Alsup Will Decide if API's are still not Copyrightable ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 22 2012 @ 03:54 AM EDT
APIs are embodied in clips of code though. In languages like C or C++, very
clearly so in the form of header files. In languages like Java, it is less
clear
where the 'code' embodying the API lives, but it is compiles somewhere into
the Java package, in such a way that tools can query its contents, and so
invoke its methods.

But I agree that to a software practitioner, the Code is not the API, but simply

a machine readable form of the API which is nothing more than a well-
documented abstraction. Sure, the documentation can by copyrighted, and
likewise the code that expresses that API on a specific system (see the SCO
trial for more on header file copyrights) but the abstract notion of the API
itself must remain outside copyright, or the industry may as well shut shop
now, as our basic vocabulary is about to be given to the sole ownership of
Oracle.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The telephone API
Authored by: Ian Al on Sunday, April 22 2012 @ 06:41 AM EDT
At last, a technology I know something about.

The telephone number to access the dial-a-specific-telephone function provided
by the Telephone System is recorded in the Telephone Dialling Interface
Specification. You may know it as a telephone directory.

The Specification is very complex and is organised by geography, country,
alphabet (for the names of subscribers to the specific function) and technology
(land-line, mobile, VOIP) and the presentation of each section varies. It has
taken years of work to ensure ease of use, cross-platform operation and global
adoption. The land-line API is open, but the mobile and VOIP are closed.

To be honest, the creative expression is not in the directory, but in the actual
functions of the Telephone System. Those are very hard to protect by either
copyright or patents. It is better to protect the Specification using copyright
law.

The function user (the 'dialler') uses the Specification for the exact numeric
string required by the specific function and passes this parameter over the
dialler-telephone system interface. The Interface is actually a family of
interfaces that access more than just subscribers' telephones. There are
different parameter sets for the different functions.

Of course, the abstract concept of an interface is only used to help the dialler
access the dial-a-specific-telephone function. There is no real interface
between the dialler and the telephone system. Furthermore, the executable is
very variable. The actual telephone functional components carry generic labels
identical to the labels looked up by the dialler in the Interface Specification
and the dialler matches the documented labels to the functional component
labels. Also, the Interface Specification says nothing about the physical
details of parameter passing across the interface.

The Telephone Directory is the result of many decades of work ensuring that the
SSO is really easy to use. It's structure is very creative. Of course, the
Interfaces are not all fixated in one document. There are national compilations
of directories that fit into an overall International Country Dialling Parameter
Prefix as an additional parameter that can be used for a specific interface.

It's no wonder that there have been attempts to protect this valuable Telephone
Dialling Interface Specification. Now, what was the outcome of that case?

---
Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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