On 6/28/19 11:40 PM, Bruce Perens via License-discuss wrote: > > /Until now, the principle of copyleft has only been applied to > literal code, not APIs. The license submitter’s proposal is for a > copyleft effect that would apply to new implementations of the API > even when the underlying has been written from > scratch. > http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2019-April/004056.html > > <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2019-April/004056.html>. > The license also makes this extension even if the legal system > would not extend copyright (and therefore copyleft) so far. During > the license-review process some commentators objected to this > extension of the copyleft principle this far. However, > the license review committee does not believe that there was > sufficient discussion representing all points of view on > the license-review list and so does not reject the license for > this reason. The license submitter should also be aware that the > OSI was a signatory on a brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court > advocating against the copyrightability of APIs. APIs are also > known to be outside the scope of copyright under European law. We > are consequently uncomfortable endorsing an application of > copyright law to APIs in any form without further discussion./ > > > The successful application of copyright to APIs would be a disaster > for Open Source software, in that we would no longer be able to create > Open versions of existing APIs or languages. Consider that the GNU C > compiler is the bootstrap tool of Open Source. Now, consider what > would have happened if copyright protection had prevented independent > implementations of the C language. > > So, it's a bad idea for us to in any way accept the application of API > copyright today. > > If we actually /get /API copyrights enforced against us broadly, we > would obviously have to change our strategy. But until then, we > shouldn't go there. >
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