Bug 5012725 describes several places in java.net where additional documenation regarding the impact of calling close() on the returned streams is necessary.
 
Here are the pertinent portions of that bug:
 
For various methods in the JDK API that return an already-open InputStream, OutputStream, Reader, or Writer, the JDK documentation (javadoc) does not specify whether or not it is the caller's responsibility to call 'close()' on the returned stream, or whether something else (e.g. the object on which the stream-returning method was called) may also close the returned stream (and under what circumstances) or what the consequences of the caller calling 'close()' will be.
 
Some of the methods for which I have seen this problem include:
    Socket.getInputStream(), getOutputStream(), etc.
    Process.getInputStream(), getOutputStream(), etc.
    URL.openStream(), etc.
    URLConnection.openInputStream(), etc.
 
[ ... ]
 
As a result, there is a great deal of confusion on how to use these methods, and in many cases, the most commonly accepted method of using them is either unnecessarily inefficient (e.g. a stream getting ultimately closed by finalize() when garbage collection occurs) or
outright wrong (e.g. having the object that created the stream close it, causing clients which may still be reading or writing to it to throw exceptions at the next access).
 
I believe strongly that EVERY method in the JDK which returns an InputStream, OutputStream, Reader, or Writer object should specify in its documentation:
    1) If the caller is required to call close() on the returned
       stream.
    2) If the class supplying the stream will ever call close() on the
       stream, and if so, at what times. (Does closing a socket also
       close its output stream? Or vice versa?)
    3) What the consequences of calling close() on the returned stream
       will be, and how that will affect future calls to the
       stream-producing method or other methods on the
       stream-producing object. (Does closing a socket's output stream
       also close the socket?)