Command Line Interface Copyright Case: Not Fair Use... But Not Infringing Thanks To Scenes A Faire
from the we-didn't-put-the-accents-in-the-title,-since-they-break-some-rss-readers dept
While the Oracle/Google case tends to get most of the attention when people talk about the copyrighting of interfaces, there was another big "interfaces on trial" case that just completed between Cisco and Arista Networks. Cisco insisted that Arista was infringing on its Command Line Interface (CLI) by using some of the same commands that Cisco equipment used. Arista responded by pointing out that a command line interface is hardly unique, and Cisco itself had been pushing the command line interface as an industry standard, and also that this whole lawsuit was just silly (they didn't quite put it in those terms, but...). Like the Oracle/Google case, this one had a patent issue attached at the hip, which got tossed off early on. That matters, because it means that the inevitable appeal will go up through CAFC, the appeals court that specializes in mucking up patent law. CAFC infamously took its "mucking up patent" skills to copyright law a few years back, in the Oracle/Google case when it decided that APIs were copyright-eligible subject matter, upending years of common wisdom, legal precedent and the clear text of the Copyright Act about interfaces.Of course, in the Oracle/Google case, after CAFC's disastrous decision, Google still came out ahead (so far) when a jury decided that its copying of the APIs was "fair use." In the Cisco/Arista case that just concluded, the jury went in a slightly different direction. It rejected the fair use argument, but still said the work wasn't infringing, because of the scènes à faire doctrine, which is one of those few copyright legal doctrines experts will throw in (along with "de minimis" when reminding people that fair use is not the only exception to copyright). The basis of scènes à faire is that it's something within the work where there are only a very small number of ways to do something, and thus, it's quite likely that multiple parties will do the same thing, meaning that any copyright will be greatly limited. Scènes à faire is French for "scenes that must be done."
In other words, the jury more or less said that using the command line interface was so basic to the operation of this kind of equipment, that it would be ridiculous to expect each vendor to come up with something different. Unfortunately, the jury didn't see the use as fair use, which Cisco has already jumped on as a sort of moral victory, but one that may come up later, if Cisco can successfully overturn the ruling on scènes à faire. Of course, if this case weren't forced to go through CAFC on appeal, it would have been nice to have been able to challenge the question of whether or not there's any copyright on Cisco's CLI at all, but thanks to CAFC's failure to comprehend that an interface is different than software, this is where we are. I fully expect that CAFC will somehow muck up this case too on appeal, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.
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Filed Under: cafc, command line interface, copyright, fair use, interfaces, scenes a faire
Companies: arista networks, cisco
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The basic interface, keywords, and structure came from an early OS called Multics, which is owned by Honeywell-Bull nowadays.
I expect HB's lawyers will be busy sending letters to everyone from Apple to Cisco to the FSF...
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Re: The basic interface, keywords, and structure came from an early OS called Multics
Multics was very different from Unix, as you will see if you look into some details.
While MS/PC-DOS copied the CP/M command line, which in turn was heavily inspired by various DEC OSes (I mean “PIP”? Really??), they are also very different from Unix/POSIX.
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Which is when Activision sues for copying the user interface from the Zork games.
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Imagine if..
Computers went through this decades ago and we all determined that consistency was better than trying to remember PIP or CP or Copy or MV ...
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Re: Imagine if..
And then Oracle sues over APIs (oversimplification, sure).
But yeah, if only there was a saying that could neatly encapsulate how unnecessary it is to invent something new to perform a really basic obvious function...
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Re: Imagine if..
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I found three typos
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"format c colon"
The court reporter dutifully types this command into her computer...
Chaos ensues.
Case closed!
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Re: "format c colon"
I get
bash: format: command not found
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The Lotus-Visicalc lawsuits started in the early 1980s when Lotus sued competing spreadsheet programs over copying the command interface. Which, ironically, they themselves had blatantly ripped off when they cloned Visicalc. It came full circle when the company that bought Visicalc sued Lotus over the very same copying that Lotus had used to shut down competitors. But this time the court ruled that a now-standard command interface wasn't protected.
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Has anyone tried to use the API called "Search" lately?
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Tossed out early on. "Tossed off" means something else entirely...
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Re: Tossed off" means something else entirely...
Folks in the US have no idea....
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