[Travis McGee]

Of interest perhaps.

[CodeToad]

My company does not allow ANY copying of ANY source code without legal review. This is why. One little coder that uses someone else’s source code, even just a few lines, can cause major headaches. INtellectual Property rights is nothing to fool around with. A company can find someone else owns the profits if they do.

[Myrddin]

There are some errors of fact in the article. The C language does have some extensions that support "structured" exception handling. The claim that C doesn't have exceptions is incorrect. C++ certainly has exceptions, but recall that C++ ultimately gets compiled down to C then to assembly. The underlying language is providing the support.

As noted by another poster, there are a limited number of ways to code a solution in a given language. Experienced coders will often come up with the same or similar results. Variations in white space, layout, variable names and comments would be expected. The "side by side" example looks like a clear "cut and paste" kind of coding where source code to the necessary solution was available and the snippet was copied to save typing. It's a common practice, but most folks are not laboring under concerns that the end product will end up under scrutiny in a court room.

[Gaffer]

So rather than denying that there was copying in play, Google argues that it should be allowed to copy such small amounts of code

Sorry judge, it was only a little bit! Honest!......I only shot him once - with a 22!.......I only grabbed her hooters a little bit! Bwaaahhhhaa....

It is true that there are only so many ways to implement some code functions but this is just plain ass laziness. Of course it was copied. Of course someone else's work was stolen without credit.