Again, pardon my ignorance, my only attempt at API use resulted in a very poorly programmed python app that was supposed to tell me which train to take . . .

but isn't that just using the HTTP/1.1 GET method? Just using someone else's API with a new paramter isn't an expressive action and clearly isn't copyrightable.

But the court would say the HTTP/1.1 GET [url] api is copyrighted by whoever wrote the HTTP spec.

The court didn't rule than ANY api is copyrightable. Just that the specific Java ones at issue where.

For example, Copyright law has what is called the "merger doctrine" which essentially says that if there is only one or maybe a few ways to implement something, then it isn't copyrightable.

So while you can copyright Microsoft Excel, you probably can't copyright a simple method that adds two intergers together. There is essentially only one way to do it.

The Fed Cir. in Oracle rejected that argument because there are unlimited ways to implement the Java libraries API. Why did Google even call them java.XXXXXXX.XXXX when they could have been Android.XXX.XXX, etc.

There is another doctrine that states that industry convention can't be copyrighted. GET is industry convention and would never be copyrightable. But the data structure it send back may or may not be.