Re: Not Just Re-Implementing
Nope. Excepting for a couple of security files and a rangeCheck() function, which were accidentally copied by Google, all of the source code that implemented the API was in there legally. A large amount was Apache licensed Java source from the Harmony project. Some was written by Google's developers in house. Whether or not it was a copyright violation or covered under Fair Use is a separate question.
To a non-developer, a printed out API looks indistinguishable from source code. As the joke goes; "It's all geek to me." Oracle, and the appellate court, would have you believe that an API is source code for any of their arguments to make sense.
The judge of the original case was fortunate enough to be able to write code himself, admittedly simple programs ( https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-google-judge-william-alsup-interview-waymo-uber ). Here is a link to the original ruling ( https://www.eff.org/files/alsup_api_ruling.pdf ) it's clear and well written.
From pages 40-41 of the original ruling the judge wrote:
"In closing, it is important to step back and take in the breadth of Oracle’s claim. Of the 166 Java packages, 129 were not violated in any way. Of the 37 accused, 97 percent of the Android lines were new from Google and the remaining three percent were freely replicable under the merger and names doctrines. Oracle must resort, therefore, to claiming that it owns, by copyright, the exclusive right to any and all possible implementations of the taxonomy-like command structure for the 166 packages and/or any subpart thereof — even though it copyrighted only one implementation [emphasis mine]. To accept Oracle’s claim would be to allow anyone to copyright one version of code to carry out a system of commands and thereby bar all others from writing their own different versions to carry out all or part of the same commands. No holding has ever endorsed such a sweeping proposition."
I hope that help clear things up.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
