Re: The case is about the APIs themselves
Individual words are not copyrightable. A collection of words that forms an original expression may well be copyrightable and it usually is, as that’s why the law was created, to form a property right over an original work.
Some works fail the copyrightability threshold because they are not sufficiently original, whille some succeed in the Fair Use defence because they have been sufficiently transformed - but these are two separate tests.
The Judges blew away the contention that APIs “never fell under copyright” - but this was only ever a rhetorical stunt created by Google’s PR department, in an attempt to make Google look like the poor innocent victim, and to scare people. But it was gibberish to anyone who understands what the law does and what a Court must do.
As you say yourself:
“ If you start with a faulty premise it's inevitable that you will arrive at a faulty conclusion.”
Biting the hand that feeds IT
