For those not paying attention or with bad memories (i.e., me), the Oracle case was about whether APIs are copyrightable.
The administration of President Barack Obama sided with Oracle in a dispute with Google on whether APIs, the specifications that let programs communicate with each other, are copyrightable.
Nothing about the API (application programming interface) code at issue in the case materially distinguishes it from other computer code, which is copyrightable, wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court had earlier asked for the government's views in this controversial case, which has drawn the attention of scientists, digital rights group and the tech industry for its implications on current practices in developing software.
Although Google has raised important concerns about the effects that enforcing Oracle's copyright could have on software development, those concerns are better addressed through a defense on grounds of fair use of copyrighted material, Verrilli wrote.
Some 77 scientists, including Vinton "Vint" Cerf, Internet pioneer and Google's chief Internet evangelist, and Ken Thompson, co-designer of the Unix operating system, submitted to the court last year that the free and open use of APIs has been both routine and essential in the computer industry since its beginning, and depended on the "sensible assumption" that APIs and other interfaces were not copyrightable.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2926740/app-
development/us-sides-with-oracle-in-java-
copyright-dispute-with-google.html
Between the TTP and this (among others), Obama really seems to get behind the wrong side fairly often. OTOH, I don't see a "conservative" in government who wouldn't have done worse, so maybe we do need to cut Obama some slack.
Wally Bass