Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Oracle vs. Google Java API Lawsuit


I am very glad to see that common sense won out here....

In arstechnica there is a great article by Joe Mullin titled:

Second Oracle v. Google trial could lead to huge headaches for developers

on the importance of this ruling for software developers.  As Mr. Mullin states:

"But what's truly at stake in Oracle v. Google, round two? For those who work with code for a living, a lot. The case revolves around how Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, can and cannot be used. Boiled down, APIs define how different types of code communicate to each other. If owners of those APIs can use copyright law to control how programming is done, there will be a sea change in industry practices. For many developers, especially of open source software, this will be a change for the worse.

"That is really going to create a radical shift in how software is developed worldwide," Mitch Stoltz, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who's been following the case, said in an interview. "If it requires permission each time APIs are used and code calls other code, then you've upended the economics of software."

This would have killed the golden goose of software development if Oracle would have prevailed here.

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