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If it is, then expect everyone selling PCs to get a nicely worded letter from IBM about their BIOS. Any jurisdiction that rules differently will imperil their
by protomyth 5y ago
If it is, then expect everyone selling PCs to get a nicely worded letter from IBM about their BIOS. Any jurisdiction that rules differently will imperil their whole software industry.
- mkl 5y ago(Edited for clarity) IBM hasn't been doing that for decades, despite the supreme court decision being quite recent - I think that was more about clean room reimplementation than APIs. My point wasn't about ruling differently but the lack of rulings/laws making it explicitly legal creating uncertainty and opportunities for Oracle/Apple to go after people. Some countries have other ways to deal with it too, e.g. NZ allows reverse engineering for compatibility purposes, which seems likely to cover APIs (not sure, haven't needed to know).
- pjmlp 5y agoIBM already tried that in the 80's and lost, due to the way Compaq did it, that is why you have PC compatibles.
- protomyth 5y agoYes, but Oracle's lawsuit was trying to rewrite the book so copying API was copyright infringement regardless of the clean room used.