FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
1.8.0_20

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Win8.1

EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
shouldn't matter

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
If you have 3 classes A,B,C
A has a protected property x.
B inherits A, C inherits A, A is in a different package than B,C but B and C are in the same package.

B and C are subclass of A and should both have access to A.x

if I try to access B.x (inherited A.x) from within a method in C i get an error
code has protected access.

First B,C are subclasses of Node and should both see A.x.
Second B and C are in the same package and should have access to a protected variable.

If i see x as protected attribut of A. B and C should both have access as they are both subclasses.

If I see x as protected attribut of C then B should hav access as it is in the same package.

In addition even if to upcast B to A, C cannot access the attribut. In this case it definitly should be able.

So please fix that behaviour or change your documentation.



ADDITIONAL REGRESSION INFORMATION:
I don't know this is a really rare combination.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
see description

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
acceess should be granted or documentation should be updated.
ACTUAL -
access is denied.

ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
code access is protected

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
this problem only occures with different packages.

package a;
class A {
protected int x;
}

package b;
import a.A;
class B extends A {
}

package b;
import a.A;
class C exttends A {
  void f(B b) {
    b.x = 3;//fails
  }
  void( A a) {
   a.x =3;//fails
  }
}
---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
move A to package of B,C.
write getter Method.