FWIW, fosspatents was one of the first commentators to side with Oracle on the claim that APIs are copyrightable (according to existing copyright law). The tech

FWIW, fosspatents was one of the first commentators to side with Oracle on the claim that APIs are copyrightable (according to existing copyright law). The tech community at large seemed to think fosspatents was a shill blog hired by Oracle for propaganda. There's a lot of info about the case on the blog too, since the legal dispute spanned many years. It's also useful to note here that the FSF's stance that software using GPL libraries need to be GPLed (i.e. the "viral" mechanism) was largely based on the idea that APIs are copyrightable and software that uses these APIs (by copying their definitions during compile and linking phase) need permission to do so. You've probably realized this by now, since it is analogous to the kernel syscall issue. It was very interesting how the community generally accepted the FSF's stance but vehemently opposed Oracle's (hint: they are the same w.r.t. to API copyrightability). People these days are beginning to realize Google could be the asshole too (not that Oracle has ever been the innocent one), so this stuff is probably less "controversial". But it was a very contentious issue back then.