An American professor has successfully obtained a U.S. copyright
registration for a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards, entitled
Angels and Demons.1 The copyright is not for
the artistic design of the cards (which are designed and published
by Wizards of the Coast), but instead for his selection of which
cards go into his deck for playing Magic: The Gathering. Although
the copyright has not been tested in court, a successful
registration clears a significant hurdle and establishes a
presumption of subsistence.
The copyright registration raises interesting legal questions
regarding the scope and bounds of copyright for compilation works.
While copyright for compilation works is not new, copyrighting a
deck of cards has some unusual characteristics. First, since the
deck is shuffled in a game, order does not matter. Second, a
selection of cards is not used or exhibited as an artistic work,
despite being a compilation of artistic works.
