4 ms·

If the Supreme Court sides with Oracle, the obvious question question that comes to mind is: What happens to WINE (unlicensed reimplementation of Windows APIs)

by curt15 6y ago

If the Supreme Court sides with Oracle, the obvious question question that comes to mind is: What happens to WINE (unlicensed reimplementation of Windows APIs)? What happens to Linux (reimplemented and essentially displaced proprietary Unix)? SQL... etc.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
People get caught up in this but WINE is a compatibility layer explicitly designed for interoperability, and is non-commercial to boot. It would have an extremely strong case for fair use. It also doesn't harm the market value of Windows. Meanwhile, Google cloned the Java API to build a proprietary platform they have made billions of dollars on, and they explicitly weren't interested in interoperability. (Android doesn't run Java apps and vice versa.) Also, by destroying the market value of a Java mobile OS, it fails at least a third pillar of the four-factor test for fair use.