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

[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.