Why not let idiotic orgs let their APIs slide into obscurity via failing to license freely?
A win for Oracle here just hastens Java's demise, and any other API definitions not liberally licensed.
When people (and organisations) show you who they are, believe them. A vendor willing to publish an API but not licence it on FRAND terms deserves the reputational hit and neglect that entails.
On the other hand, there may be some utility in being able to control via licensing access to an API. A copyright free-for-all removes that possibility. For example, couldn't the OpenZFS devs could copy the GPL'd kernel API code they need for performance so as get around the GPL? Copyright protections cut both ways, surely.
As I understand it, Google copied and shipped copyrighted source code to implement the Java API, not merely referenced it/included it in order to consume it, the typical use-case most devs would be concerned with.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
