http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/op-ed-oracle-attorney-says-google...
Interesting article, I have to say.
I was trying to figure out where it goes so hilariously wrong. I narrowed it down to this part:
...because the Java APIs have been open, any use of them was justified and all licensing restrictions should be disregarded. In other words, if you offer your software on an open and free basis, any use is fair use.
At one point it is talking about “API use”, and suddenly that becomes “any use”.
But that doesn't make the problem go away. For instance, imagine a GPL plugin-framework (eg image processing pipeline) which requires you only to implement an interface to make your plugin usable in the framework (eg FFT filter). Then just implementing (or "using") the interface would be considered "fair use" and commercial derivatives would no longer be considered derivative work. A company wouldn't be required to distribute their source code anymore. I'm not familiar with the Linux kernel source code, but I could imagine that this would affect it as well: implementing a driver interface is no longer derivative work. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/