The question of API copyrightability seems to have been a big failure of the legislation-and-precedent system. The theory is that instead of the legislature tr

The question of API copyrightability seems to have been a big failure of the legislation-and-precedent system. The theory is that instead of the legislature trying to think through all the corner cases ahead of time, they pass a somewhat vaguer act and leave the courts to sort out some test cases; then in a reasonable amount of time clarity is supposed to emerge. But it's been 40 years since the world decided that it would "protect" computer programs as if they were literary works, and 30 years since most people thought that the question of API copyrightability was settled, and it turns out that we never got clarity at all. Having judges trying to determine the question by deciding whether APIs are analogous to chapter titles or plot points in Harry Potter books is just ridiculous.