Phew...
That's good news. The original judge had it right, fair use should apply to published APIs.
If there was a transfer of copyright material (copying of code behind the APIs) then Google should get skinned for that.
But if re-implementing APIs was to be considered a copyright violation it would either be the death or the salvation of the software development game. I say salvation, because then the risk of lock-in would be a very compelling reason for the use of open standards and easy to argue for at a corporate level.
What really grates is Oracle's attempts at retrospective lock-in. A real confidence-killer.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
