[Discuss] can you copyright an API?

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey)]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Tom Metro
> 
> In any case, we're heading off on a tangent from the thread. I'm far
> less interested in whether Google prevails on the overall suit than in
> the question of whether APIs can be protected by copyright.

Even if an API is copyrightable, we've already concluded it's easily
circumventable.  They can't illegalize translating from one language to
another, and they can't illegalize designing a language to be easily
translatable to a specific other target language.  In other words, you can
easily script a trivial transliterate function that will translate.  I
suppose Oracle could prosecute anyone who wrote such a translator without
licensing the copyrighted API...

If an API is copyrightable, the above does not mean the copyright is
meaningless...  Just that in the future, it will have minimal impact.

The main question of interest will be whether or not the API is patentable.
But the alleged patent infringement are not related specifically to the
API...  And it would be quite difficult for somebody to claim they
"invented" something unique and valuable when they defined the behavioral
interface to something...  But if somebody like Oracle wants to do something
like that...  I believe they'll find a way.