Arbitrary Cloud API

Does the

Legal uncertainty about APIs and fair use impact the cloud computing market?

Today, when it comes to intellectual property issues, it is a bit of a bore-even when the technology giants are dealing with the courtroom. However, copyright cases between Google and Oracle have allowed cloud computing to change concerns about the impact of the event.

The current problem is the copyright of the Oracle Java Application Interface (API), which accuses Google of diverting 37 of them into the Android operating system. In Monday, a California jury came to the conclusion that part of the ruling was that Google violated Oracle's copyright.

This divisive verdict left a crucial question unresolved. Is Google using the Java API to make fair use?

Arbitrary Cloud API

In addition to compromise or conflict with the integrity of the platform, IT companies to develop their platforms, seize the market, build a good revenue environment around their technology, the API generally like to take a hands-off approach. Amazon is a typical example in the cloud supplier market.

Amazon's API is widely used by startups and companies that build cloud services. They help promote innovation, and some of these innovations have attracted a lot of it investments in cloud infrastructure and supporting software. That's why Amazon's official endorsement of Eucalyptus's AWS API for private and mixed cloud deployments in March is a surprise.

In the view of industry watchers, the move shows Amazon's strategy to avoid legal and technical uncertainties that can bring more business users to AWS. It is still an attempt to resist competition-and a relatively unrestricted cloud technology like the Open-source OpenStack platform.

And there are hints that Amazon may not like the way a company uses its APIs and takes legal action in the future. This will have a devastating impact on the IT industry, experts warn.

Does the cloud take the dark path? The response of the

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to Oracle v. Google was that the legal Affairs Commissioner Julie Samuels stated EFF's view that Google was using the Java API fairly. She also raised the fundamental question of the existence of copyright and the API.

She writes, "The problem now is that treating the API as copyrighted will have a profound negative impact on interoperability and innovation." APIs are a ubiquitous foundation for the development of various programs. All software developers use APIs to make their software compatible with other software. "

Enstratus NX's chief technology officer, Cloud management expert George Reese recognizedThe effect of enforcing copyright on the API on the emerging cloud market is devastating. Copyright-protected APIs, he told Wired Enterprise, "would pose a risk to any company that uses the Amazon API, unless they reach some sort of agreement with Amazon on these APIs." "

at the very least, Oracle's role as a leader in the API is to put up high technical barriers for companies wanting to enter the cloud.

In his verdict on Wired enterprise, Robert McMillan wrote that "the case would give Amazon legitimate reasons to look for a license from OpenStack users such as has and Rackspace." "

OpenStack is also true of middleware that mimics Amazon's Api,citrix Cloudstack and Jclouds and fog.

In addition to this, Samuels says the court has clear provisions when it comes to copyright and APIs.

"Regardless of the actual consequences, there are very good legal reasons not to treat APIs as copyrighted material: they are purely functional." The law has made it clear that copyright does not cover programming languages, but that they are only the medium of creation (copyright may involve procedures written in this language). The

(editor: Heritage)