RE: Re: music playlists

From: Webb, Jere <JMWEBB[_at_]stoel.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:14:05 -0400

I am reading with interest the responses to my original post about potential copyright protection for playlists. I think the recipe cases are a good test for the distinction that is troublesome here; that is, does copyright law say that facts aren't protected but creative expression or arrangement of facts may be (although that protection is "thin"), or is the correct statement of the controlling rule that facts are not protected, but that creative SELECTION or arrangement of facts may be. Once you expand protection to SELECTION, you have thrown a real monkey wrench into the analysis and, I believe, are completely at sea. The recipe cases- and I have read most of them-are a perfect example. Despite the somewhat conflicting posts about copyrightability of recipes, I think it is pretty clear that the list of ingredients and amounts are not protected and can be copied, but that recipes with creative expression (i.e. a lot of textual description) may enjoy some protection, just like any other text. But here's the rub: the list of ingredients and amounts could have resulted from incredible creativity and experience, yet I do not believe that any amount of such creativity makes the list of ingredients subject to copyright protection. Am I missing something?

-----Original Message-----
From: John [mailto:jfnbl[_at_]earthlink.com]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 3:11 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: music playlists

>----- Original Message -----
>From: Steven Jamar <sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu>
>Date: Friday, April 1, 2005 4:25 pm
>Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: music playlists
>
>> recipes are not copyrightable.
>
>Says who?

Let's be specific. A recipe, qua formula, is not copyrightable. It's expression, by Julia Childs for example, may well be -- subject to merger doctrine limitations.

John Noble

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Visit the CNI-COPYRIGHT e-mail list archive at <https://mail2.cni.org/Lists/CNI-COPYRIGHT/>. Received on Mon Apr 04 2005 - 22:14:05 GMT