So what would actually happen for reals in a copyrighted API universe? If someone wants people to interact with their API (such as a website) they will obviously license their API in such a way. And if they don&#x27;t they won&#x27;t.<p>So, what terrible things would happen? Most programmers agree it&#x27;d be terrible. I trust the masses. But for discussion&#x27;s sake could someone provide a concrete example or two?<p>Somewhat related, I believe ARM&#x27;s instruction set is protected. Probably by patents? I&#x27;ve always felt that source code should NOT be patentable but SHOULD (and is) be copyrighted. Where an API falls and how to draw that line I&#x27;m not sure.