Copyright protection is given to the author’s “method of expressing” an idea or information or facts. Protection is not given to the actual idea or to the actual facts. For example, if Lacey D wrote a song about the rain in Seattle, she could not copyright the fact that it rained in Seattle. She could, however, copyright her particular method of expressing the essence of rainy weather; that is, her choice of notes, words, instruments, and the sound effects in her song.
In order to qualify for copyright protection, a work must be original and it must be fixed in tangible form.
Lacey D’s new CD, Encountering the Edge, is clearly a product of her creative ability: she wrote every word and every note. But is it original? According to the law, it is if she put in a minimal amount of intellectual effort and if the work is minimally creative.
Is there an example of a work that is original but did not contain minimal intellectual effort or was not minimally creative? An excellent example is The White Pages (the telephone book). In Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc. the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether The White Pages phone book was protected under copyright law. The Court found that while a great deal of labor went into The White Pages, it lacked minimal creativity. The Court further noted that the underlying facts - people’s names, addresses and phone numbers - were facts that people could not Copyright.
Is Lacey D’s new CD fixed in tangible form? Yes. Her songs were first written down on paper and were then recorded onto the CD, both of which are tangible. If the songs simply existed in her mind, they would not be subject to copyright protection. Of course, in that case, no one else would ever have heard her songs!
Is Lacey D’s CD entitled to copyright protection? Yes. It fills both requirements – originality and a tangible form.
Other examples of works that can be copyrighted include: literary works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, photographs, motions pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and architectural works.
What about computer programs? The law considers them to fall in the category of “literary works” and subject to copyright law. The copyright extends to the source code, object code and operation and application programs.
Does it matter if the work is obscene or immoral? As long as the expression is original and fixed in a tangible form, copyright law does not concern itself with whether it finds that expression good or bad quality, obscene, or decent. (Other areas of the law directly concern themselves with the question of obscenity.)
