It was "copyright troll" You can consider it at a API oriented "patent troll".
This proves that some API providers want to keep juridical and commercial protection out of their APIs, as it was a patent.
Have you seen all the recent API Terms of service changes because of competiting business model of 3rd party applications?
Except it isn't the same as the only time your API is valuable is if you have data, which you wouldn't have if it was a shell company.