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The APIs are already GPLed | 503 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
The APIs are already GPLed
Authored by: hardmath on Sunday, April 22 2012 @ 09:11 AM EDT
The Classpath and OpenJDK/IcedTea implementations are GPL'd, so the API
declarations could be derived safely from them under terms of the GPL. Judge
Alsup will rule as to whether the API declarations might be separately
copyrighted.

[Recall that Florian Mueller tried to argue that Google had violated the GPL by
creating and distributing header files that declare the Linux kernel APIs.
Linus shot this argument down in flames, stating that using the APIs in this way
was completely legitimate even if the APIs are to be called by non-GPL'd
userland programs.]

I'd have expected to hear from Oracle by this point if in fact the API
declarations had been separately copyrighted (i.e. apart from their appearance
in the implementations and in the documentation).

If no such claim was made in Jacobs's summary of what-has-been-shown-so-far, I
strongly suspect neither Oracle nor Sun ever did so. Thus the question for
Oracle is how such post-facto claims can be justified, assuming Judge Alsup
allows them at all.

regards, hm


---
Do the arithmetic or be doomed to talk nonsense. -- John McCarthy (1927-2011)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The APIs are already GPLed
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 22 2012 @ 09:33 PM EDT
The GPL covers any requirements that might be needed, due to insane laws
passedby even more insane politicians

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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