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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 25 2012 @ 05:33 PM EDT |
The Java API means two things which Oracle is deliberately
trying to confuse: The Java API class name(s) and class
heirarchy, and the Java API class library code.
The Java API class name and its class heirarchy is part of
the Java language (for example the API class name and class
path for "print"), and are public domain, and would not be
not copyrightable in any case because they are short names
which are references with specific meanings (as to what the
API call does) in the same way as words in a spoken language
and their meanings, which copyright law most certainly does
not protect.
The Java API Class Libraries are the code that implements
the actions that calling the Java API functions by name, and
this is the only copyrightable part of the API. Oracle owns
the copyrights to the Java API Class Libraries, but Google
is not using Oracle's Java API Class Libraries at all,
instead they are using a clean room alternative
implementation - the Harmony Class Libraries - for which
Oracle does not own the copyright, and which does not copy
or infringe on Oracle's copyrighted code at all.
The only thing that Google has used that can conceivably be
called Java implementation is the Java language, of which
the Java API class names and class names are a part.
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