“All of this work is broadly applicable to the PC platform, and it’s going to continue to expand over time. Supporting multiple platforms, multiple chipsets, controllers for different machines that are out there and even ones that aren’t out yet.”
[…] Valve’s goal with the OS is to have it compatible with traditional PCs, laptops, portable consoles and any other formats.
Iirc there’s already a legal precedent that says copyright doesn’t apply to APIs themselves, just their implementations, so reverse engineering one to make your own implementation is fair game. I think the original lawsuit was even about wine.
Though it is possible my memory archives are corrupted.
I do remember the oracle vs Google lawsuit.
Google’s copying of the Java SE API, which included only those lines of code that were needed to allow programmers to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program, was a fair use of that material as a matter of law. Federal Circuit reversed.
From the wikipedia article about it