What Is A Copyright?

A copyright seeks to promote literary and artistic creativity by protecting, for a limited time, what the U.S. Constitution broadly calls the "writings" of "authors." Copyrightable works include:

• literary, musical and dramatic works;
• pantomimes and choreographic works;
• pictorial, graphic and sculptural works (including the nonutilitarian design features of useful articles);
• motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
• sound recordings;
• computer programs;
• certain architectural works; and
• compilations of works and derivative works.

Copyright only protects particular expressions of ideas, not the ideas themselves. And a protectible work must be "original," i.e., not copied from another source (although two separately protectible works theoretically could be identical by coincidence). The work also must not be so elementary that it lacks sufficient creativity to be copyrightable (such as a common shape or a short phrase).