The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has put out an urgent call to software developers, software engineers and others who use APIs, asking them to submit stories that explain why APIs should not be subject to copyright law.
Last summer as part of the Oracle v. Google case surrounding Android’s use of Java, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that APIs cannot be copyrighted. Now, that finding is up for appeal before a three-judge panel. TechCrunch’s Alex Williams writes, “Alsup was that rare judge who actually learned how to do computer programming. It’s doubtful that the three judges will share such a deep knowledge of how applications work and integrate with APIs.”
The EFF plans to submit a document to the court arguing that APIs should not be copyrightable. Those who would like to contribute to the efforts can email their stories to [email protected].