Can SQL be Copyrighted?

Note:  We are not lawyers, and this page is not legal advice.  For legal advice, consult a qualified attorney, not this web page.

An individual may reproduce a copyrighted work, however, [when he does so] for a 'fair use'; the copyright owner does not possess the exclusive right to such a use. Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 433 (1984).  This principle is embodied in the Copyright Act: "the fair use of a copyrighted work . . . is not an infringement of copyright." 17 U.S.C. § 107 (West Supp. 1992).  

But what about SQL?  Can SQL be copyrighted? 

I'm not a lawyer, but I remember the case of Apple v. Microsoft, where Apple tried to claim that their "drop-down:" menu's were copyrightable.  As I recall, the court ruled that the "drop-down menu's could not be copyrighted, and that any "access method" cannot be copyrighted.

Here we see an interesting issue.  Surely, SQL is a data access method (suggesting that it cannot be copyrighted), but some of the later incarnations of SQL have strap-on's that make the SQL function as a procedural language, which might be copyrightable.

Note:  We are not lawyers, and this page is not legal advice.  For legal advice, consult a qualified attorney, not this web page.