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Aren't you unfairly privileging the idea of a Java program over that of a Java library? A wholly-packaged Java program may not have interoperability with Androi
by wtallis 7y ago
Aren't you unfairly privileging the idea of a Java program over that of a Java library? A wholly-packaged Java program may not have interoperability with Android, but lots of libraries don't have that problem. There are plenty of copyrighted works written in Java that are fully compatible with Android.
- Spivak 7y agoI don’t disagree at all, but the question isn’t “are there pieces of existing software that run on both” but “is that the reason that Google copied the API or is it a side effect?”
- wtallis 7y agoThe existence of those works that run on both means you really need to start coughing up evidence for your repeated assertion that Google's motives were strictly about something else.
- gpm 7y agoI'd argue that that is the wrong question, motive doesn't come into play in this law (specifically: The merger doctrine). You should rather be asking the hypothetical version. If someone tried to make a second system that could run the software, would they have had to copy the API? If so the API is not copyrightable.
- pjmlp 7y agoIf they happen to be lucky enough to use the cherry picked features from OpenJDK (cause they are now using it, but only the parts/packages they care about), not taking advantage of newer JVM bytecodes and ideally written in a Java 7 style.