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by fxfan 2698 days ago
Well said. There is a lot of hard-work that goes in defining the right API.

Question for you since you sound knowledgeable: If Oracle wins- can Linux in some way enforce this on Microsoft given Microsoft's work on WSL? Or is that applicable only where there is a taxonomy as you pointed out? My understanding from fosspatents is that it doesn't specifically have to be a taxonomy and even a flat API can be copyrighted (which I agree with since there is work that goes in it...)

Answering it from cwyer's comment on this page- doesn't apply to fair use so WSL is fine.

I would urge people who are looking to get the other side of this argument (pro-Oracle) to also read fosspatents.com. That is a sensationalist blog but the facts presented are very true.
1 comments
icebraining 2698 days ago
> There is a lot of hard-work that goes in defining the right API.

Telephone directories also take quite a bit of work to compile, yet (per Feist) can't be copyrighted.

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elygre 2698 days ago
Telephone directories may take quite a bit of work to compile, but perhaps more labor than creativity. I can't off hand think of too many ways to organize such a directory.

I can immediately think of many ways to do dates, and so can many java programmers (think the Date api, the Calendar Api, JodaTime, JSR310).

And having "new Date(1,1,1)" mean "the first day of the second month of the year onethousandninehundredandone" surely requires a bit of creative thinking.

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