It's my understanding that copyright isn't primarily concerned with whether you were looking at the original when you produced the same work. It may be a factor in some cases, but the primary concern is similarity. If the works are the same, the latter work infringes regardless of access to the original. For example, if you write a song which is substantially similar to another song released some time before your own, you've infringed even if you'd never heard the prior work. edit: apparently I am mistaken[1] on this point. My apologies.
The point with this particular code is it's so obvious that many (most?) programmers would come up with the exact same code when given the task. It's part of the bigger picture that code isn't prose, it's instructions. How do you accomplish this task in this given system? First A, then B, then C. The first person to give some simple set of instructions should not be the only one allowed to.
The point with this particular code is it's so obvious that many (most?) programmers would come up with the exact same code when given the task. It's part of the bigger picture that code isn't prose, it's instructions. How do you accomplish this task in this given system? First A, then B, then C. The first person to give some simple set of instructions should not be the only one allowed to.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substantial_similarity