Am Dienstag, den 12.02.2008, 17:06 -0500 schrieb George Neuner:
> Yes, APIs can be both copyrighted and patented. My father and sister
> are IP attorneys so I am quite certain of this.
I'm not sure what legal system you're referring to - at least here in
Germany, you cannot copyright APIs.
You can copyright API descriptions. You can copyright the .h files. In
fact both are automatically copyrighted by the mere act of creating
them.
However, writing a program that has
#include <somecopyrightedapi.h>
in it does *not* violate the copyright. You may have to distribute your
code without including somecopyrightedapi.h, so there are obvious
problems, but nothing in copyright law prevents you from using the
header file.
Distributing binaries that used somecopyrightedapi.h is a different
issue. I don't know what the rules here are.
And, yes, you can patent APIs here, though strictly speaking that should
be impossible (but the EPA is reinterpreting the laws to mean the exact
opposite of what they originally meant).
Regards,
Jo
Joachim Durchholz wrote:
> Am Dienstag, den 12.02.2008, 17:06 -0500 schrieb George Neuner:
>> Yes, APIs can be both copyrighted and patented. My father and sister
>> are IP attorneys so I am quite certain of this.
>
> I'm not sure what legal system you're referring to - at least here in
> Germany, you cannot copyright APIs.
> You can copyright API descriptions. You can copyright the .h files. In
> fact both are automatically copyrighted by the mere act of creating
> them.
In the US, that may not be true, depending on how strongly the API
constrains the contents of the .h or equivalent files. Text whose value
is purely functional is not subject to copyright, period. (But of course
there's a lot of wiggle room in "purely functional") That keeps people
from doing things like copyrighting a routine to add two numbers or
checking for a passphrase in any code that calls a library and suing
people who reproduce the passphrase in their code without permission...
> However, writing a program that has
> #include <somecopyrightedapi.h>
> in it does *not* violate the copyright. You may have to distribute your
> code without including somecopyrightedapi.h, so there are obvious
> problems, but nothing in copyright law prevents you from using the
> header file.
>
> Distributing binaries that used somecopyrightedapi.h is a different
> issue. I don't know what the rules here are.
>
> And, yes, you can patent APIs here, though strictly speaking that should
> be impossible (but the EPA is reinterpreting the laws to mean the exact
> opposite of what they originally meant).