On 10/3/98, Leo Smith <barter[_at_]ntplx.net> wrote:
>
> If it were to be held that arrangement, placement, timing etc in a
> fireworks display were protected by copyright, then would it not
> also follow that the copyright holder could take infringement
> action against other pyrotechnic companies if they fired off the
> same fireworks and used the same timing, placement, colors, etc?
> That conclusion seems ridiculous.
Why shouldn't a choreographed fireworks display be held to the same standard as any performance of a fixed work? Why shouldn't the originality of the display be scrutinized to ensure that it is copyrightable? Why shouldn't someone who copies the display and performs it be held accountable? If your concern is that people who are *not* copying the work would be held accountable because they just happened to do something substantially similar, this doesn't seem to me to be any different from any problem with the independent creation of a work. The plaintiff would still have to prove that there are not so few ways to express the concept that the idea and expression merge (this toward the proof of copyrightable subject matter), and the plaintiff would still have to prove access by the defendant (this toward the proof of copying).
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