[derekdb]

S3 explicitly changed their license to allow copying the S3 API. I forget the year, ~2010? I was working an S3 at the time and it was a strongly debated decision.

Google’s initial launch of their cloud storage copied not just the S3 API, but also the error codes.

[winwhiz]

I think the point is that if this case had gone the other way this kind of open licensing would happen a lot less. Companies would be obliged to enforce API copyright to protect themselves from loss of copyright (share holder value)