Re: Copyright on languages

[moritz]

So, what happens when Oracle wins? IBM sues them because they copied the Sequence, Structure and Organization (SSO) from SQL?

On the more general picture, I agree with Paul Graham, who writes that we need to update our mental and juristic models about what "property" is. Imagine the flood of law suits if the US decides that APIs are copyrightable; nobody can say with a straight face that this is good for economy or humanity in any way.

[ww]

But it would be great -- no, GREAT! -- for those lowlife members of the legal trade who profit from undertaking such lawsuits... and for the lowlife trademark/patent/copywrite collectors who sometimes sue solely in hopes that the legitimate owner will pay something (less than the cost of defending the suit) to make the court case go away.