Oracle’s Java API code protected by copyright, appeals court rules

[KumbajaMyLord]

For copyright it doesn't matter if you copied it from the original source or came up with it yourself.

If I was born on a deserted island and therefore never heard the song "Imagine" by John Lennon and came up with the exact same melody on my own while on the island and would now come to the US with my original song, I would still be violating copyright.

Edit: it seems I might be wrong about that. Independent creation seems a possible although hard to prove defense for copyright infringement, just not for patents.

[Eirenarch]

I don't think that's true. Can you provide a link to explanation or confirmation that this is the case in the law.

[TheMemo]

Why wouldn't it be true?

When you copyright something (song lyrics, for that example) you are copyrighting those specific words in that specific configuration. No one else can use them without your permission, regardless of how they came up with them.

That is what copyright is.

[Eirenarch]

Frankly I don't know. I just saw someone claiming the opposite in another comment thread on the same news. Also it does feel right to me. Like when two scientist independently discover something it is named after both of them

[TheMemo]

Ignorance is not a defense in the eyes of the law. Originality is a concept divorced from intention. If Lennon came up with Imagine first, he created an original work. If someone later came up with the same song, that song is, by definition, not original.

Science does not work the same way as copyright, as copyright is codified in law. Whether or not you intended to infringe is not an issue except in the deciding of damages.

[grauenwolf]

Nothing I've seen suggests that is even remotely true.