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Time for Us Programmers to Help Define APIs in "Legal Termonology"? | 438 comments | Create New Account
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Time for Us Programmers to Help Define APIs in "Legal Termonology"?
Authored by: calris74 on Friday, April 27 2012 @ 07:42 AM EDT
Agree - The part that would be subject to copyright would be how the API is explained in human-readable form:

e.g.
int io.print.string(string some_string)

This function prints some_string to the currently selected output device.
The value returned is the number of characters printed (negative if there was an error)
int io.print.string(string the_string)

Output the_string. Returns the number of characters printed.
Prior to calling this function, an output device must be selected
If an error occurs, this function returns a negative value
In both cases, the API definition (the first line) is the same (albiet with a differently named parameter - and this is the only part of the definition that can be changed without breaking the API) - Neither is covered by copyright.

However, the remaining functional description (Specification) is covered by copyright

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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