Here is some news that, I think, will be welcome to all of us. In the
Oracle vs. Google case over Java, the US District Court judge, William
Alsup, has ruled that APIs are not copyrightable.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275

I am not a lawyer, but I think that this means it is legal in the USA
to reverse engineer the Steinberg VST SDK and other such APIs. Since
Vestige already does at least some of  that, I propose that we port
CsoundVST and the vst4cs opcodes to use Vestige.

In my view, it was always absurd to contemplate copyrighting a
protocol of any sort. Copyright applies to the expression of an idea.
A protocol such as API is not an expression, it is the thing itself, a
logical object.

Regards,
Mike

-- 
Michael Gogins
Irreducible Productions
http://www.michael-gogins.com
Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com

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Very big news, indeed!

Thanks for sharing this. I'm excited to see what new possibilities for
Csound this will allow, potential appellate rulings notwithstanding.


-David

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Michael Gogins  wrote:
> Here is some news that, I think, will be welcome to all of us. In the
> Oracle vs. Google case over Java, the US District Court judge, William
> Alsup, has ruled that APIs are not copyrightable.
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275
>
> I am not a lawyer, but I think that this means it is legal in the USA
> to reverse engineer the Steinberg VST SDK and other such APIs. Since
> Vestige already does at least some of  that, I propose that we port
> CsoundVST and the vst4cs opcodes to use Vestige.
>
> In my view, it was always absurd to contemplate copyrighting a
> protocol of any sort. Copyright applies to the expression of an idea.
> A protocol such as API is not an expression, it is the thing itself, a
> logical object.
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
> --
> Michael Gogins
> Irreducible Productions
> http://www.michael-gogins.com
> Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Live Security Virtual Conference
> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions
> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware
> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
> _______________________________________________
> Csound-devel mailing list
> Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel

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If I understand correctly, what actually happened was that the
specific set of APIs in the trial was deemed non-copyrightable (ie,
not that generally APIs cannot be copyrighted). I might be wrong,
though.

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 5:08 PM, David Akbari  wrote:
>
> Very big news, indeed!
>
> Thanks for sharing this. I'm excited to see what new possibilities for
> Csound this will allow, potential appellate rulings notwithstanding.
>
>
> -David
>
> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Michael Gogins 
> wrote:
> > Here is some news that, I think, will be welcome to all of us. In the
> > Oracle vs. Google case over Java, the US District Court judge, William
> > Alsup, has ruled that APIs are not copyrightable.
> >
> > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275
> >
> > I am not a lawyer, but I think that this means it is legal in the USA
> > to reverse engineer the Steinberg VST SDK and other such APIs. Since
> > Vestige already does at least some of  that, I propose that we port
> > CsoundVST and the vst4cs opcodes to use Vestige.
> >
> > In my view, it was always absurd to contemplate copyrighting a
> > protocol of any sort. Copyright applies to the expression of an idea.
> > A protocol such as API is not an expression, it is the thing itself, a
> > logical object.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Mike
> >
> > --
> > Michael Gogins
> > Irreducible Productions
> > http://www.michael-gogins.com
> > Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Live Security Virtual Conference
> > Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
> > threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond.
> > Discussions
> > will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in
> > malware
> > threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Csound-devel mailing list
> > Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Live Security Virtual Conference
> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions
> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware
> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
> _______________________________________________
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel




--

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler

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The case is about this specific API, yes. I am not a lawyer, but my
understanding is that this sets an important legal precedent in that
any time a case comes up in a court of law (in the US) involving APIs
this ruling will likely be referenced in some way.

Most importantly, and relevant to this discussion is this line:
"Others are free to write their own implementation to accomplish the
identical function, for, importantly, ideas, concepts and functions
cannot be monopolized by copyright."


-David

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Felipe Sateler  wrote:
> If I understand correctly, what actually happened was that the
> specific set of APIs in the trial was deemed non-copyrightable (ie,
> not that generally APIs cannot be copyrighted). I might be wrong,
> though.
>
> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 5:08 PM, David Akbari  wrote:
>>
>> Very big news, indeed!
>>
>> Thanks for sharing this. I'm excited to see what new possibilities for
>> Csound this will allow, potential appellate rulings notwithstanding.
>>
>>
>> -David
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Michael Gogins 
>> wrote:
>> > Here is some news that, I think, will be welcome to all of us. In the
>> > Oracle vs. Google case over Java, the US District Court judge, William
>> > Alsup, has ruled that APIs are not copyrightable.
>> >
>> > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275
>> >
>> > I am not a lawyer, but I think that this means it is legal in the USA
>> > to reverse engineer the Steinberg VST SDK and other such APIs. Since
>> > Vestige already does at least some of  that, I propose that we port
>> > CsoundVST and the vst4cs opcodes to use Vestige.
>> >
>> > In my view, it was always absurd to contemplate copyrighting a
>> > protocol of any sort. Copyright applies to the expression of an idea.
>> > A protocol such as API is not an expression, it is the thing itself, a
>> > logical object.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Mike
>> >
>> > --
>> > Michael Gogins
>> > Irreducible Productions
>> > http://www.michael-gogins.com
>> > Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Live Security Virtual Conference
>> > Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
>> > threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond.
>> > Discussions
>> > will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in
>> > malware
>> > threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Csound-devel mailing list
>> > Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
>> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Live Security Virtual Conference
>> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
>> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions
>> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware
>> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
>> _______________________________________________
>> Csound-devel mailing list
>> Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Saludos,
> Felipe Sateler
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Live Security Virtual Conference
> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and
> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions
> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware
> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
> _______________________________________________
> Csound-devel mailing list
> Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel

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Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and 
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will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware 
threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
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