Stuff Michael Meeks is doing |
Older items: 2021: ( J F M A M J J A S O N D ), 2019, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, legacy html
Android includes infringing class libraries and documentation. Approximately one third of Android's Application Programmer Interface (API) packages ... are derivative of Oracle America's copyrighted Java API packages ... . The infringed elements of Oracle America's copyrighted work include Java method and class names, definitions, organization, and parameters; the structure, organization and content of Java class libraries; ...This seems (to me) to be an extraordinary claim.
class Dangerous implements WindowListener { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { do something; } public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowOpened(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {} public void windowStateChanged(WindowEvent e) {} ... }Does 'copying' that listener signature give Oracle a similar copyright claim on your code? surely not. What if you implement dozens of listener interfaces all with methods matching Oracle's (supposedly copyright) API - does that give Oracle an ownership right to parts of your code? again it seems incredible. What if you used one of the hundreds of books that comes with sample code that looks just like the above to implement your code ? do Oracle own you ? What if you use the same argument names as the sample in the book ? What if you take the constructor example, and turn those argument names into member variables to store the data in (as people do) ? Then again, you can see this sort of code licensed under a BSD license from Oracle themselves; how much of the supposed API is intrinsic to existing BSD licensed examples ?
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/
and data/
directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE, Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International), or anyone else. It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy. Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)