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You lost me at "…API (such as a website)"…. How is a website an API? UI I can see, but API? What do you mean by that? In the case of UI, there's a good chan

You lost me at "…API (such as a website)"…. How is a website an API? UI I can see, but API? What do you mean by that? In the case of UI, there's a good chance that, to the extent that the piece that is copied constitutes a method of operation, that piece is not copyrightable. For example, in Lotus v. Borland [1], the court ruled that the organization of menus and keyboard macro commands for the sake of compatibility was not copyrightable. However, certain more "artistic" things like icons and such are copyrightable. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Development_Corp._v._Borland_International,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Development_Corp._v._Bor....

forrestthewoods 10y ago
When people preach doom and hellfire over copyrightable APIs they often bring up web requests. If that's a poor example then ok. My question asking for _good_ examples stands firm. As obviously don't have one to say!
- groovy2shoes 10y ago
  Sorry, I'm not a Web developer so I really don't know what the connection is. I'm not just trying to be obtuse :S
  - askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago
    GP is asking for examples of when copyrighting an API would be a problem. They used web APIs because that's apparently what they are most easily able to call to mind. I've found many programmers think of APIs as ways of interacting with remote systems, usually via http/json/REST. Personally, I think of an API as things like an argument signature in a library, or even hooks in an OS. To me, API literally means a programmatic interface to some code. How you write code to interact with other code. [Not that you said anything differently, I was just trying to expand a little on the different perspectives of 'API' I have encountered.]
    - groovy2shoes 10y ago
      Ah, thanks. I really don't know anything about Web APIs. I'd heard the terms "Web API" and "REST", etc. before, but didn't realize it was just a site that you sent special HTTP requests to. Thought there might be something more involved than that? Like Websockets or something. Mostly that sounds like an RPC to me, which I suppose is technically an API, but I'm used to hearing the more specific term.
      - askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago
        Your mental model is pretty accurate for a rough sketch. Those terms are all used in a similar manner depending on who you talk to. Personally, I go with the most general usage of API: an interface to interact with programmatically.

forrestthewoods 10y ago

When people preach doom and hellfire over copyrightable APIs they often bring up web requests. If that's a poor example then ok. My question asking for _good_ examples stands firm. As obviously don't have one to say!

groovy2shoes 10y ago
Sorry, I'm not a Web developer so I really don't know what the connection is. I'm not just trying to be obtuse :S
- askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago
  GP is asking for examples of when copyrighting an API would be a problem. They used web APIs because that's apparently what they are most easily able to call to mind. I've found many programmers think of APIs as ways of interacting with remote systems, usually via http/json/REST. Personally, I think of an API as things like an argument signature in a library, or even hooks in an OS. To me, API literally means a programmatic interface to some code. How you write code to interact with other code. [Not that you said anything differently, I was just trying to expand a little on the different perspectives of 'API' I have encountered.]
  - groovy2shoes 10y ago
    Ah, thanks. I really don't know anything about Web APIs. I'd heard the terms "Web API" and "REST", etc. before, but didn't realize it was just a site that you sent special HTTP requests to. Thought there might be something more involved than that? Like Websockets or something. Mostly that sounds like an RPC to me, which I suppose is technically an API, but I'm used to hearing the more specific term.
    - askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago
      Your mental model is pretty accurate for a rough sketch. Those terms are all used in a similar manner depending on who you talk to. Personally, I go with the most general usage of API: an interface to interact with programmatically.