Copyright, Open Source and APIs

©

Steven Willmott, 3scale networkssteve@3scale.net / @njyx

http://www.3scale.net @3scale

http://apistrategyconference.com21-22 Feb, 2013

IANAL

(& This is Not Legal Advice)

Outline

• Copyright and APIs don’t mix

• Alsup to the rescue

• But there’s still a problem

• Share rather than copyright - towards an Interface Commons

Copyright & APIs

From: app.net API

Copyright would imply, no reuse of whole or (possibly) fragments

Copyrighting APIs?

v’s

v’s

Bad News for Everybody

• Copyrighting the Idea of something rather than its Expression

• Copyrighting every possible implementation of that thing

• Makes

• Building almost any new language or API hard

• Integrating systems impossible

Copyright Gridlock

API 1

API 2API 3

API 4

API 5

API 1.1 ?

Bad news even if you are the original

copyright claimant

Even worse if the APIs / Fragments are

generic

Leads to widespread paralysis

Luckily...

Recent Judgements => No Copyright

US Verdict

So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API. It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical.

European Verdict

[... the Court holds that neither the functionality of a computer program nor the programming language and the format of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions constitute a form of expression. Accordingly, they do not enjoy copyright protection.]

So, All Clear?

Not so Fast!

• There is still uncertainty (EFF Appeal)

• “Copyright” is still everywhere

• Reuse can still be Plagiarism

• There may be patents...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/no-copyrights-apis-help-us-make-case

E.g. Bad Behaviour

Copy/Paste? ->

Copyright still applies to some things + can still be plaigiarism

So What to do?

• What should we do when designing APIs?

• Should we be sharing rather than copyrighting?

• What if you actually want to protect something?

And more importantly...

Actually Sharing would be very powerful

• Reduces coding hassle

• Ups Re-use

• Makes Better Interfaces

Remind you of Open Source?

But there is little API Interface sharing today

Things to think about

If you publish APIs

• Think about how you feel about re-use

• If you’re cool with sharing, find a way to signal it

• If you think the technology is genuinely unique and worthy of protection: patent rather than copyright

If you want to “Re-use” APIs

• Ask!

• Attribute!

• Contribute!

• Get clarification on status of re-use

• Figure out who the original Author is

As a Community

• Think about how to better share interfaces

• Consider an “interface commons” (or an creative commons for interfaces)

• Play nice when re-using, attributing and sharing

• Encourage clarity

• Encourage convergence in interfaces

Ready to Share

CreativeCommons

PublicGithub

WADL / Swagger

etc.

There are inherent Tensions in this...

It’s Hard +

Difficult to Achieve but..

It’s Worth it

• Start building a culture of open / reusable interfaces [100’s, 1000’s, ...]

• Make API design better

• Speed up pretty much everything

Interested in people thoughts on how to get there!

Thank You & Discussion

Contact:

Steven Willmottsteve@3scale.net

http://www.3scale.net@njyx