General Principles

Copyright LawChapter 2: The Subject Matter of Copyright (1991)

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General Principles

Copyright extends to all varieties of literary, artistic and musical works.

To be eligible for copyright protection, however, such works must satisfy additional criteria, which find their source in the constitutional provision empowering Congress to enact copyright legislation. Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the Constitution gives to Congress the power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Not only does this provision limit the duration of the copyright that Congress may authorize, but it also requires that the congressional grant of copyright be to "authors" for their "writings." U.S. copyright law has therefore always required that a work manifest "original authorship" in a special sense, to be discussed below, and that it be "fixed" in some tangible form. Indeed, precisely the constitutional requir...

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