The challenge of buying a license from SCO

Posted Sep 16, 2003 21:30 UTC (Tue) by dvdeug (guest, #10998)
In reply to: The challenge of buying a license from SCO by neoprene
Parent article: The challenge of buying a license from SCO

If I write code then later find out it was somehow protected, how could I have possibly known?

Don't worry; if I copyright a chunk of code and you indepenedently write the same code, you have an independent and seperate copyright on your code, even though it's the same. Copyright only protects copying, not independent reimplementation. Unsurprisingly, courts tend to be suspicious of most independent reimplementation, but if you can show you never saw the original or the similarities were compelled by technical reasons, it's legal.