I completely disagree with this piece. Sharing it here because it's a good example of the dangers of half truth and this decision could have a horrible impact on our industry for exactly the opposite reason the author states.<p>For those who didn't follow the trial or first appellate ruling Google copied the spec and then clean roomed their own implementation.<p>If organizations can copyright a spec (an API) then one organization gets to own a protocol (ex. Samba use now requires licensing from Microsoft, etc.).