37 ms·

Sorry if this dumb, but what does a fossil like Oracle have to do with the future of software development?

• deleted 8y ago
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• _bxg1 8y ago
  Oracle bought Sun, the company that created Java. Android was designed in such a way that code written for the Java Virtual Machine could run on it without modification, though the implementation itself is totally original. Oracle is claiming that even the set of vocabulary used by Java programs to talk to the JVM - not just the JVM itself - is copyrighted. This vocabulary is otherwise known as an API. APIs live between every piece of software and every other piece of software it talks to. If the precedent was set that you could copyright an API, it would be a catastrophe for people's ability to build software on other software.
  • Forge36 8y ago
    If Oracle wins what would that mean for a project such as WINE? My understanding is that Microsoft could cite precedent and request WINE pay royalties as a standard install of windows.
    • _bxg1 8y ago
      Precisely, unless they decide to continue their recent good-guy streak.
• deleted 8y ago
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