George L. Abbott <glabbott[_at_]library.syr.edu> wrote:
>
> Yep... EVERYTHING is copyrighted when it is fixed in a tangible
> form. "put down on paper or keys in" qualifies as fixing in a
> tangible form.
This is a pretty outrageous statement in light of the Copyright Law's express limitation of copyright protection not to "EVERYTHING ... fixed in a tangible form" but only to "original works of authorship" and specifically excluding "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." 17 USC 102. Moreover, copyright protection does not extend to facts, blank forms, titles and short phrases, page layout, and collections of factual material that are not selected and arranged in an original way.
This, I submit, is a lot less than "EVERYTHING".
Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com>
Received on Thu Jul 16 1998 - 16:02:39 GMT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:30 GMT