Exclusions from Copyright Protection
According to federal law, copyright protection does not extend to the following:
Ideas, methods, or systems. Copyright protection is not available for ideas or procedures for doing, making, or building things; scientific or technical methods or discoveries; business operations or procedures; mathematical principles, formulas, or algorithms; or any other concept, process, or method of operation (as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration of such). Thus, once an idea is described or expressed, it is protected by copyright. For example, assume you have a brilliant idea for a television game show in which people will answer questions posed by a television personality and can win a million dollars. If you mention the idea to a friend who then develops a written script for the television program, there has been no copyright violation. Your idea is not protectable. Your friend's expression of that idea is protectable. The legal principle describing this concept often is called the idea–expression dichotomy, referring to the fact that ideas are not copyrightable but the expression of those ideas is copyrightable.
Useful articles. Designs for useful articles, such as vehicular bodies, wearing apparel, household appliances, and the like are not protected by copyright; however, the design of a useful article is subject to copyright protection to the extent that its pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features can be said to exist independently from the useful object itself. Thus, although clothing is itself not copyrightable (as is clear from the release of knockoff imitations and reproductions of dresses immediately after the Academy Awards presentations), the actual sketches of the clothing are protectable; moreover, if certain distinctive appliques and items are embroidered on the apparel, they may be protectable. Similarly, although a car is not copyrightable, the famous statuette that appears as a hood ornament on a Jaguar automobile is protectable. In both cases, the item attached to the useful article can exist independently of the useful article itself.
Titles, names, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols or designs, and mere lists of ingredients. Names, titles, and phrases are not subject to copyright protection. Thus, numerous textbooks share the title Introduction to American History. Even if a title or slogan is distinctive, it cannot be protected by copyright. A distinctive slogan may well qualify for trademark protection, however. Moreover, recipes, labels, and formulas are not protectable. When a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary explanation or directions, however, such written matter may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself, a mere list of items, remains unprotected by copyright.
Common property. Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship, such as standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources, are not copyrightable.
U.S. government works. Copyright protection is not available for any work of the United States government, such as statutes, reports, or white papers. Although the government can own a copyright granted to it by another, its own works are available and free to all to copy and use. Works produced by state and local government entities are not covered by federal copyright law; state statutes may control ownership and use of the material.
Public domain works. Works of the U.S. government often are said to be in the public domain, meaning they are available for all to use. Other public domain works include works whose copyright has expired. At all times, copyrights have been of limited duration. Although the period of protection has varied, once protection expires, the work is available for all to use. Thus, a novel written during the Civil War can be made into a movie without any permission. Once the movie is made, however, a new copyright exists in the movie, and during its term of copyright protection, no one can make a sequel to the movie or some other derivative work based on the movie without its author's consent.
Facts. Facts are not protected by copyright. Thus, dates of birth and death, population statistics, and so forth cannot be protected under copyright law. Although an individual may arrange certain facts in a creative way, creating a copyright in that particular arrangement, as is seen in an almanac, the underlying facts themselves are available to others to use.