mrnoglue

Tomica,

Thanks for the opinion piece, really interesting analogy!

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m not a IP lawyer, so consider this a layman’s opinion.

Now for my piece: what you said makes a lot of common sense. The unfortunate part is that your analogy is setting up mostly a straw man argument in the legal sense. In the eyes of the law it’s entirely appropriate for a website to mimic another website. However, it is not appropriate for a developer to mimic an API. Especially when there is evidence of intent. It is immaterial whether this legal framework is restrictive from a common sense or practical perspective. And while I agree the basic policy premise of your argument, you have to understand that policy arguments have little sway with judges.

If this case is heard in front of the supreme court, the letter of the law will pretty much dictate the result, policy goals be damned. Especially in light of the fact that none of the nine will be able to understand api’s any better than the verge staff. For oracle to triumph in court, they must show by a preponderance of the evidence, that google stole their API in bad faith.

You’re first line was dynamite.