RedHat urges US Supreme Court to support unrestricted use of software interfaces

[jrepinc]

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-urges-us-supreme-court-support-unrestricted-use-software-interfaces

[jwildeboer]

Dear mods, we are called Red Hat. Two words. Not Redhat or RedHat or redhat. Thx. A Red Hatter.

[theandrewbailey → jwildeboer]

"Red Hat urges US Supreme Court to support unrestricted use of software interfaces" is 81 characters long, so it won't be accepted as an HN title.

[boublepop → theandrewbailey]

Good point, so it makes perfect sense to shorten it to “Red Hat urges US SupremeCourt to support unrestricted use of software interfaces” to stay inside 80 characters.

[NewJazz → boublepop]

SCOTUS would make more sense. u2691.

[NewJazz → jwildeboer]

This comes across as pedantry, similar in vein to the whole SyStEmD shtick, and it distracts from the content. Red Hat is just a brand asset of IBM, and getting lectured by the volunteer marketing department is not why I come to HN.

[godzillabrennus]

Microsoft backing this same stance plus Google is likely to tip the scale. Good to see redhat/IBM trying to do their part,

If they lose the world loses.

[graphicsRat → godzillabrennus]

I hope IBM is considering a similar suit against Oracle for their implementation of SQL.

[anoncake → godzillabrennus]

Is this really how courts work in the US? Does the Supreme Court effectively rule based on companies voting rather than the law as it is?

[CivBase → anoncake]

Definitely not. Companies may lobby or argue on their behalf, but the Supreme Court justices are solely responsible for interpreting the law and ruling on the case.

[webboynews → godzillabrennus]

Oh my god. Only my stance is current otherwise it's instant doomsday

[justinclift]

As a nit picking data point, "RedHat" in the title should be "Red Hat". ;)

[theandrewbailey → justinclift]

The title is already 80 characters long as it is. Any longer and HN wouldn't accept it.

[teruakohatu]

When is the Court likely to issue a ruling?

[jka → teruakohatu]

I'm not super familiar with US court proceedings, but from the docket[0] for the case, it looks like the court is accepting briefs (like this one by RedHat) until Feb 12th -- so I'd imagine the earliest next steps would be after that.

The docket also links to the full supporting argument provided by RedHat (and others).

[0] - https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/...

[PhantomGremlin → teruakohatu]

It would be very unusual if the court didn't issue a ruling before the end of the current term. So by about late June.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/procedures.aspx

[illys]

The referred law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102

Software interfaces look to me like a "method of operation", only the implementation (the lines of code to run the interface) is subject to copyright.

[theshadowknows]

I have a fairly limited understanding of copyright laws but if this stands won’t it open the courts up to even more frivolous copyright trolls?

[colejohnson66 → theshadowknows]

Heck, Amazon could sue Oracle for them copying AWS’ interfaces. And IBM could sue Oracle for their use of SQL. That’d be some schadenfreude.

[nailer]

Red Hat was a great corporate citizen before Google adopted "don't be evil" officially and remains a good corporate citizen after Google abandoned it.