4 ms·
One thing I hope everyone agrees with is that API design is an art. Often coming up with a good API is as significant a task as actually implementing it. An API
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
One thing I hope everyone agrees with is that API design is an art. Often coming up with a good API is as significant a task as actually implementing it. An API that is intuitive yet flexible and extensible is tricky to design.
If APIs are copyrightable, this actually might be good for open source projects such as Redis and MongoDb where cloud providers are just taking their API and creating implementations. This has been a huge issue for sustainability of these kinds of open source initiatives when a multi-billion dollar corporation can just come through, take the API and write their own implementation.
- orthoxerox 7y agoDid Redis and MongoDB copyright their APIs?
- icebraining 7y agoCopyright is automatic, so if APIs are copyrightable, the answer is necessarily "yes".
- wuliwong 7y agoI'm looking for a distinction between code and an API. I think that the code that defined the APIs is copyrightable. If someone copied that code, it seems relatively cut and dry. Now if someone produced a similar interface but with entirely their own code, then it seems fine?
- wvenable 7y agoCooking is also art but recipes are not copyrightable. Not all creative expression is copyrightable just because it's creative expression. You could argue that basically everything is creative expression at some level.