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A comment on Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google. Parent comment

Re:Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster... by imtringued on Friday October 09, 2020 @06:50AM (#24728632)
An API is an invisible thing. It's not in the code. It has absolutely nothing to do with code. You can create an API without any code at all. Therefore copyright does nothing because there are ways of copying an API that do not violate copyright.

Compare it to x86. It's just an "API" as well. Someone can write a specification or reference listing all opcodes and even though that reference is licensed under MIT or GPL you are still not allowed to make your own x86 processor because there is an IP tool specifically designed for this case. It's called patents. Just because you are not violating Intel's copyright doesn't mean you aren't violating Intel's patents.

Google probably didn't violate copyright and probably didn't violate any patents. So it is pretty much clear cut. Oracle failed to patent its API and therefore Google is allowed to use it.

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Re:Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster... by mumblemumble on Friday October 09, 2020 @09:33AM (#24729741)
> you are still not allowed to make your own x86 processor

AMD, Cyrix, Transmeta

I'm 99% certain that, if Intel had legal grounds to keep them out of the market, they would have done so. I'm 100% uncertain what's different between that case and this one.

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