If you're not a software developer or a copyright geek, you probably weren't aware of this case. But it could potentially affect what we're doing here.
The background is that Oracle sued Google back in 2010, claiming that Google's Android phones were infringing Oracle's copyright on the Java APIs. Google picked this up when they bought Sun Microsystems a while back. Googles response at the time was that you couldn't copyright an API, which is a believe that most in the software industry have held for quite a while. The initial court ruling agreed with google, but this was overturned in appeal, with a ruling that API's did indeed have copyright protection. The supreme court declined to hear this case, meaning that that now becomes the law of the land in the US.
While this doesn't directly address ABIs, it certainly raises that possibility, and I full expect to see lawsuits about that in the near future. If that happens, it means that what we're doing in reverse engineering protocols to use with deviation would be a copyright infringement. While we're not very attractive as a target since it's non-profit, etc., we're certainly a great target if someone wanted a precedent for ABI's being protected. After all, our only option would appear to be accept whatever terms were offered, or stop distributing deviation. I think it's unlikely, but it's certainly a possibility.
Most likely in the hobby would be HH suing HK to force them to stop selling OrangeRx DSM Rx's. With the current state of the law, this would just stop them from stocking them in US warehouses, at least initially. There are other things going on that could result in customs impounding them on entry, or restrictions on what HK can offer for sale.
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My remotely piloted vehicle ("drone") is a yacht.
