Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
API Copyrightability Law Brings (Many of) Us Together
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2019 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
So you know that moment partway through a movie where heroes team up and stride toward the camera in slow motion while epic music plays?
The Python Software Foundation's counsel, Van Lindberg, writes: @ThePSF and @tidelift just filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to grant cert in Oracle v. Google. This case is central to the future of free and open source software. http://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-956/89548/20190225155816527_18-956%20Amici%20Brief%20Python.pdf
Tidelift cofounder Luis Villa notes: More on this tomorrow, but very excited to join @ThePSF in this. At @tidelift we believe in growing the pie, not fighting over the scraps, and the ability to reuse and reimplement APIs is part of how the software industry has grown (and hopefully will continue to grow!)
(Amicus/amici curiae briefs always remind me of a cartoon Seth Schoen drew.)
From the brief:
The Federal Circuit's decisions are so destabilizing because they upset the settled expectations of thousands of software developers -- and particularly open source software licensees -- across all aspects of the economy.
Yup -- one reason the docket has so many other amici briefs. As far as I can tell, all of them are in favor of the Court granting certiorari.
