[CamperBob2]

I wonder how those idiot judges on the appeals court would feel if a bunch of programmers with Sharpies ran rampant through their law books, altering the long-established order of things with essentially no knowledge of what they were doing. It's a shame the universe doesn't provide for karmic retribution at this level.

Downvote if you like, but there's no other way to describe the absence of de minimis exceptions besides "idiocy." These judges are essentially monkeys in a machine shop.

[jimnotgym]

Perhaps they are not idiots, they are just trying to apply laws written for books and music to software. That is not their fault, they don't get to make laws, only interpret them.

I think this is another case where the law makers have been rather slow to keep up. Copyright is not really working in this era.

[zelphirkalt]

> That is not their fault, they don't get to make laws, only interpret them.

Isn't that exactly what the parent of your post called:

> These judges are essentially monkeys in a machine shop.

Blindly trying to apply an unfitting law, because those are the instructions?

[chc]

The absence of de minimis exceptions is not that important because API copyrights are a terrible idea all on their own.