An API library is software. So it fits with copyrighting software so nothing wrong there. I just think there is a lot of software that’s copyrighted or part of an IP package that doesn’t do anything unique or non-intuitive.
“An API library is software. So it fits with copyrighting software so nothing wrong there.”
Nope. An API is NOT software. An API is a specification, like the list of ingredients in a cake. A list of cake ingredients IS NOT copyrightable, though a specific, written recipe that lists the ingredients IS copyrightable.
Likewise, a software library that implements an API IS copyrightable.
So, ideas are not copyrightable, but implementations of ideas rendered in terms of media ARE copyrightable.
This is an insane ruling.
True. If software is subject to copyright, then an API should as well.
One thing that you're missing, however, is that copyright protects an expression from being copied, not any form of functionality. Ergo, it is perfectly okay for software not to do "anything unique or non-intuitive," or even work, to be copyrighted.
Further, a person who re-creates an API from scratch and without accessing the original API violates no copyright even if the code is 100% identical. That said, the likelihood of 20 lines of independently designed code being identical is highly remote.
Just, FYI, I am an IP attorney.