Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think the specification can be, but the API code itself is a mechanical translation of the specification into computer code. Note that abstractions, names, etc are conceived in the specification and are then translated into computer code. Even if you skip the specification step, as sometimes is done, you're then dealing with an implicit, ad-hoc specification. I think that's a distinction without a difference; you…
The words on paper (or any other medium) are protected under copyright. The story isn't. Otherwise someone could just make a theoretical book that contains all possible English sentences and thereby make it illegal to speak English. People don't seem to grasp that there is a distinction between semantics and representation. You can represent the number 85 in many different ways. In binary, in decimal, in hexadecimal.…
That's the opposite of what you're claiming in the rest of your post.
> However the physical hardware (i.e. the thing whose representation is your digital design files) is not protected by copyright.
That's absurd; if you can copy the physical layout then you can copy the design, so copyright protection for the design would be meaningless.