In reply to Chip Bennett.

It's interesting you bring up Thesis because I was thinking about it in the back of my mind when I was writing this post. I'd have to go back in the archives but because of the implementation of WordPress code in Thesis, it was violating the WordPress copyright/GPL License and was considered a derivative. I've probably got that all screwed up but it was something similar to that.

Based on research and my own feelings, the fear is that common phrases, words, and calls could become copyrighted thus really hampering open innovation and creativity. I think this is why Google is claiming a defense of Fair Use.