On Tue, 6 Apr 2021 08:55:09 +1200, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alphabet's Google didn't commit copyright infringement when it used Oracle's programming code in the Android operating system, sparing Google from what could have been a multibillion-dollar award.'
According to this <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/supreme-court-sides-with-google-in-api-copyright-battle-with-oracle/> preliminary report, the court did not actually rule on whether APIs were copyrightable at all, only that fair use was applicable if they were. The idea that APIs were copyrightable came from the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit, which twice overturned lower-court verdicts that were in favour of Google. It’s worth noting that the only reason appeals went to the notoriously intellectual-property-friendly CAFC is because the original lawsuit from Oracle included a patent claim, which was actually quickly thrown out.