TLDR: A Supreme Court decision yesterday means that startups and developers should be able to continue to use software interfaces, known as application programming interfaces (APIs), without facing liability for copyright infringement. Startups and developers routinely rely on APIs to create interoperability and compatibility between computer programs, and they had long understood APIs to be exempt from copyright protection. But a…

I’m happy about the Supreme Court’s 6-2 decision in Google v. Oracle, affirming that Google’s reimplementation of the Java API for Android was a fair use and thus not copyright infringement. Google and Oracle’s competitions can breathe a sigh of relief, since a result that went the other way could have seriously inhibited the ability of smaller companies and new entrants…

Today the Supreme Court decided the long-running Google v. Oracle copyright case, which began more than a decade ago.  Supreme Court cases of this nature often elicit horse-race coverage — who won, who lost — but today’s decision that reimplementation of an API is fair use will have a far greater impact on software programmers and developers than it will on either of the two…

In a win for innovation, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that Google’s use of certain Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is a lawful fair use. In doing so, the Court reversed the previous rulings by the Federal Circuit and recognized that copyright only promotes innovation and creativity when it provides breathing room for those who are building on what has come…

WASHINGTON – Re:Create today issued the below statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in favor of Google in the Google v Oracle fair use case:  “Today’s Supreme Court decision is a win for fair use, computer programmers and American consumers. The court makes it clear that programmers can use declaring code without permission as a fair use in…

What Would Changing The DMCA Mean For Startups? When it comes to proposed changes to our copyright laws, the harmful impact on startups is often overlooked compared to larger technology and content industry companies. In a new blog post, Engine breaks down some of the proposals, including mandatory filtering and notice and staydown, and how they would harm the tech…

At an event discussing disinformation and the digital divide, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon said he was committed to supporting a balanced copyright system that promotes fair use, digital lending, and the work of libraries. “Libraries provide vital public services by making high quality resources available to everybody. And that’s true no matter what you’ve got in your bank   account…

Every day, people use the Internet to create and share content with others across the globe—and those users, and the Internet companies they rely on, each depend on a copyright framework some policymakers are looking to change. Specifically, a few members of Congress indicated they may be willing to re-open Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Unfortunately,…

Rock climbers have a tradition of sharing “beta”—helpful information about a route—with other climbers. Giving beta is both useful and a form of community-building within this popular sport. Given that strong tradition of sharing, we were disappointed to learn that the owners of an important community website, MountainProject.com, were abusing copyright to try to shut down another site OpenBeta.io. The good news…

In January of 2012, an unprecedented coordinated protest took place online in opposition to two federal bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). More than 115,000 websites published protest content or even completely shut down for the day in an attempt to shut down these internet blacklist attempts. The extreme anti-piracy bills would have jeopardized online community platforms…