> Saying that "APIs" are not copyrightable will render tons > of open source projects licenses invalid, since all open > source licenses "rest on top" eg append

> Saying that "APIs" are not copyrightable will render tons > of open source projects licenses invalid, since all open > source licenses "rest on top" eg append copyright laws. I don't think this is true. Open source licenses dictate what you can or cannot do with the code, not with the API it implements. You're perfectly free to go ahead and, say, implement a closed source version of a GPL library - as long as it's not based on the original code. Abolishing copyright /in general/ would render most (all?) open source licenses void, but that's an entirely different matter.