Re: [Help-glpk] How did you rewrite the cplex API?

[glpk xypron]

Hello Christophe-Marie,

whether API definitions are copyrightable has been subject to legal disputes.

In a case between Google and Oracle in the US it was decided that API 
definitions are not copyrightable:
"So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone 
is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out 
exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API. 
It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical. 
Under the rules of Java, they must be identical to declare a method specifying 
the same functionality — even when the implementation is different. When there 
is only one way to express an idea or function, then everyone is free to do so 
and
no one can monopolize that expression. And, while the Android method and class 
names could have been different from the names of their counterparts in Java 
and still have worked, copyright protection never extends to names or short 
phrases as a matter of law."
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/01/Gcopyright.pdf

A likewise decision exists for the EU:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-406/10

Best regards

Xypron



-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 13:13:14 +0200

> Betreff: [Help-glpk] How did you rewrite the cplex API?

> Hi,
> 
> Browsing the glpk sources, I found the following file:
> examples/cplex/cplex.h
> 
> I am the author of lazylpsolverlibs [1], a project aiming at
> generating proxy libraries for commercial lp solvers. My goal is to
> provide opensource libraries to link to for open source programs that
> use commercial lp solvers. These libraries transparently proxy calls
> to the closed-source ones whenever the solver can be found on the
> machine. My primary target is Osi [2], but I think other opensource
> implementations can benefit from such a work.
> 
> Right now, what bothers me the most is copyright issues. Implementing
> proxy functions is not a problem, but writing headers in a way I can
> redistribute them freely gives me headaches. As a consequence, I am
> interested in knowing about the way you wrote this file. Did you start
> from the actual cplex.h? Did you rewrite it from scratch?
> 
> Cheers,
> Christophe-Marie
> 
> [1]: https://code.google.com/p/lazylpsolverlibs/
> [2]: https://projects.coin-or.org/Osi
> 
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