[GTALUG] Google wins over Oracle in Java API copyright suit

[Russell Reiter]

On Tue, Apr 6, 2021 at 2:47 PM Nicholas Krause via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

>
>
> On 4/6/21 2:17 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
> > | From: Russell Reiter via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
> > |
> > | I read that article with interest after I had used a
> pharmacological/health
> > | sciences metaphore about copyright in another thread.
> >
> > Most drugs are "protected" by patent legislation.  Very different from
> > copyright.
> >
> > Perhaps surprisingly, trademark law is very helpful to drug companies
> > because what something is called may matter more than what it is.
>
> Yes one of my family members stated this about aspirin after working
> at Bayer. They stated the cost was basically 3 to 4 times the regular
> non traded medicine even through it was the same. Most people still
> bought aspirin through. Happens all the time with other medicines as
> well.
>

I believe it was in in the early 1800's that Dr. Friedrich Serturner
isolated an alkaloid
from the opium poppy. He called it morphine after morpheus the god of
sleep. In the modernization of
medicine the english Dr. Sydenham, one of the earliest english diarists
said “Of all the remedies it has pleased almighty God to give man to
relieve his pain and suffering, none is so universal and so efficacious as
opium.”

I think it was in 1888 that Bayer patented and released two products,
Aspirin and Heroin (heroic) the substance legally described as diacetyl
morphine. If I recall correctly it is created by exposing the alkaloid
morphine to acetic acid anhydrides.

Interestingly the Opium Poppy (papaver somniferum) has many alkaloids but
only a few psychoactives which affect human biology; morphine, codeine,
thebaine, noscapine (also called narcotine), and papaverine. The modern
endorphin receptors were firstly named opium receptors.

It was the fact that opium affected all mammals in every corner of the
world, which led to those studies in symbiosis that led to further
research. Why would a substance, which only grows well in a narrow
equatorial region affect mammals not present in those areas?

Ancient sumerian tablets had images of people with poppy stalks growing out
of their heads, which indicated that those ancients were well aware of the
psychotropic effects of the oil extracted from the seeds and used for
cooking.

Of course there is always the Seinfeld episode, for a bit of comic relief,
under fair use policy @ 0.30 in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzuQr7YVYg


> >
> > | You may use other copy protected work under fair use if it adds value
> to
> > | the proposition. I think this decision makes that pretty clear.
> >
> > There are a few tests for US Fair Use.  Do you think that
> > "transformative" is the same as you meant by "adds value"?
> >
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_(law)>
>
> I'm not a lawyer but to my knowledge there can be overlap. It really
> comes now to content again. For APIs the content is clearly no but
> perhaps in other cases it is. For example, translations add value but
> are considered transformative in nature. Content in the legal system
> is always critical.
>
>
> Nick
> > ---
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-- 
Russell
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