> If you lived in a secluded cave and completely independently wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (unlikely, I know, but it's hypothetical), you'd be v

> If you lived in a secluded cave and completely independently wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (unlikely, I know, but it's hypothetical), you'd be violating J.K. Rowling's copyright by selling it. This is absolutely incorrect. Independent creation is a complete defense to copyright infringement. Funny enough, Learned Hand gives a near identical example to highlight the opposite conclusion ("if by some magic a man who had never known it were to compose anew Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn, he would be an 'author,' and, if he copyrighted it, others might not copy that poem, though they might of course copy Keats's").