MESSAGE
| DATE | 2017-05-13 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout of NYLXS] Fair USe
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More details on this: Here is the EFF, but I think they are blind.
Pinning hopes on a fair use argument without a fair use statute is
useless. Its just a matter of time before all fair use is elimintated..
https://www.eff.org/cases/oracle-v-google
Oracle v. Google
At issue in Oracle v. Google is whether Oracle can claim a copyright on
Java APIs and, if so, whether Google infringes these copyrights. When it
implemented the Android OS, Google wrote its own version of Java. But in
order to allow developers to write their own programs for Android,
Google's implementation used the same names, organization, and
functionality as the Java APIs. For non-developers out there, APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) are, generally speaking,
specifications that allow programs to communicate with each other. So
when you read an article online, and click on the icon to share that
article via Twitter, for example, you are using a Twitter API that the
site’s developer got directly from Twitter.
In May 2012, Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California
ruled that APIs are not subject to copyright. The court clearly
understood that ruling otherwise would have impermissibly—and
dangerously—allowed Oracle to tie up “a utilitarian and functional set
of symbols,” which provides the basis for so much of the innovation and
collaboration we all rely on today. Simply, where “there is only one way
to declare a given method functionality, [so that] everyone using that
function must write that specific line of code in the same way,” that
coding language cannot be subject to copyright.
Oracle appealed Judge Alsup's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit. On May 30, 2013, EFF filed an amicus brief on
behalf of many computer scientists asking the Federal Circuit to uphold
that ruling and hold that APIs should not be subject to copyright. On
May 9, 2014, the Federal Circuit issued a disastrous decision reversing
Judge Alsup and finding that the Java APIs are copyrightable, but
leaving open the possibility that Google might have a fair use defense.
On October 6, 2014, Google filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme
Court to review the Federal Circuit's decision. On November 7, 2014,
EFF filed an amicus brief on behalf of many computer scientists that
asked the Supreme Court to grant Google's petition for review, reverse
the Federal Circuit, and reinstate Judge Alsup's opinion. Unfortunately,
in June 2015 the Supreme Court denied Google's petition.
The case returned to the district court for a trial on Google's fair use
defense. Fortunately, in May 2016, a jury unanimously agreed that
Google's use of the Java APIs was fair use. Oracle has filed another
appeal.
Fair Use and Intellectual Property: Defending the Balance
Blog Posts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This amounts to that Oracle can create a programming language (although
they didn't, they aquired it), and tell anyone at any time when they can
and can not use it becuase its functionality is systax is copyrighted.
Unless the courts contrieve a fair use arguement around it. We've seen
this before. Its a dead end for information and is largely why we no
longer have libraries...
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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