[Lazarus] Embarcadero vs Lazarus/FPC (Oracle vs Google)

[Reinier Olislagers]

On 8-5-2012 9:16, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm following the trial between Oracle vs Google and wondered about
> the following... Judge Alsup told the jury to assume API's are
> copyrightable - something Alsup still has to determine later during
> trial. Now if he does rule that API's are copyrightable, how will this
> affect the Lazarus and Free Pascal projects? Both the latter projects
> copy Embarcadero's API's verbatim.
> 
> http://www.osnews.com/story/25918/Google_infringed_Java_copyrights_but_we_don_t_know_if_that_s_illegal
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/05/jury-rules-google-violated-copyright-law-google-moves-for-mistrial.ars

On the other hand, apparently EU judges ruled that programming languages
are NOT copyrightable... the extract of the ruling seems to indicate (to
me) that that specifically includes APIs:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/eu-court-rules-programming-languages-not-copyrightable/76076

I think a lot more projects will have problems if APIs are deemed
copyrightable and doubt any sane person would rule that... but we are
talking about the legal system... ;)

Suppose it's wait and see...