Noncopyrightable subject matter

Certain works and subject matter are expressly excluded from protection under the Copyright Act, regardless of their originality, creativity and fixation. Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans generally do not enjoy copyright protection under the Copyright Act. Other material ineligible for copyright protection includes the utilitarian elements of industrial designs; familiar symbols or designs; simple geometrical shapes; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering or coloring; and common works considered public property, such as standard calendars, height and weight charts, and tape measures and rulers.

Copyright protection also does not extend to any "idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied" in such work even if it meets the criteria for protection. Thus, although a magazine article on how to tune a car engine is protected by copyright, that protection extends only to the expression of the ideas, facts and procedures in the article, not the ideas, facts and procedures themselves, no matter how creative or original they may be. Anyone may "use" the ideas, facts and procedures in the article to tune an engine &mdash; or to write another article on the same subject. What may not be taken is the expression used by the original author to describe or explain those ideas, facts and procedures.

Copyright does not prevent subsequent users from copying from a prior author's work those constituent elements that are not original &mdash; for example. . . facts or materials in the public domain &mdash; as long as such use does not unfairly appropriate the author's original contributions. This idea/expression dichotomy "assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work." Although it "may seem unfair that much of the fruit of the [author's] labor may be used by others without compensation," it is "a constitutional requirement" &mdash; the "means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art."

As a matter of law, copyright protection generally is not extended under the Copyright Act to works of the U.S. Government. Therefore, nearly all works of the U.S. Government may be reproduced, distributed, adapted, publicly performed and publicly displayed without infringement liability in the United States under its copyright laws. While the Copyright Act leaves most works created by the U.S. Government unprotected under U.S. copyright laws, Congress did not intend for the section to have any effect on the protection of U.S. government works abroad.