Legal Definitions - independent creation

Independent Creation

In copyright law, independent creation is a legal defense used when someone is accused of copying another person's copyrighted work. This defense argues that even if two works are very similar or even identical, the later work was not copied from the earlier one. Instead, the creator of the later work developed it entirely on their own, without any knowledge of, access to, or influence from the pre-existing work. The similarities are considered purely coincidental, arising from separate and parallel efforts.

• Example 1: Musical Composition

  Imagine two songwriters, Sarah and Mark, living on different continents and having no contact with each other. Both independently compose a short, catchy melody for a children's song. When their songs are released, listeners notice that the main melodic phrase in both songs is strikingly similar, almost identical. If Sarah accuses Mark of copyright infringement, Mark could use the defense of independent creation by demonstrating that he composed his melody from scratch, without ever hearing Sarah's song or having access to her work. He would present evidence of his creative process, such as early drafts or recordings, to prove his independent effort.

• Example 2: Photographic Art

  Consider two landscape photographers, Emily and David. Emily captures a breathtaking photograph of a unique rock formation at sunset, with a specific play of light and shadow creating a dramatic effect. A year later, David, who lives in a different region and has never seen Emily's work, visits the same location and, by chance, captures a very similar photograph under comparable lighting conditions. If Emily were to claim David infringed her copyright, David could argue independent creation, providing evidence like his travel itinerary, camera metadata, and original RAW files to show he independently composed and captured his image without any knowledge of Emily's prior work.

• Example 3: Software Algorithm

  Two separate software development teams, Team Alpha and Team Beta, are tasked by their respective companies to create an innovative algorithm that efficiently sorts a specific type of complex data. Both teams work in isolation, without any communication or access to each other's code. Due to the inherent mathematical constraints and optimal solutions for that particular data sorting problem, both teams independently arrive at an algorithm that is functionally and structurally very similar. If Team Alpha were to accuse Team Beta of copying, Team Beta could assert independent creation by presenting their development logs, code commit history, and internal design documents to prove they developed their algorithm through their own original research and programming efforts, entirely separate from Team Alpha's work.