5 What is Copyrightable?

For the purposes of copyright protection, the term “literary and artistic works” includes every original work of authorship, irrespective of its literary or artistic merit.

The ideas in the work do not need to be original, but the form of expression must be an original creation by the author.

Article 2 of the Berne Convention states that: “The expression ‘literary and artistic works’ shall include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression.”

The Convention lists the following examples of such works:

• books, pamphlets and other writings
• lectures, addresses, sermons
• dramatic or dramatico-musical works
• choreographic works and entertainments
• musical compositions with or without words
• cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography
• works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography
• photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography
• works of applied art
• illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science
• “translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work,” which “shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work” and
• “collections of literary or artistic works such as encyclopedias and anthologies which, by reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents, constitute intellectual creations” – again, the Convention provides that these “shall be protected as such, without prejudice to the copyright in each of the works forming part of such collections.”

What is NOT copyrightable?

Ideas and facts are not copyrightable.

The Berne Convention identifies additional categories, such as official texts of a governmental, legislative, administrative, and legal nature, leaving member countries to decide if they exempt those texts from copyright protection. Most countries deny copyright for statutes, as an example. In some countries, works created by government employees are excluded from copyright protection and are not eligible for copyright.

“Understanding Copyright and Related Rights”World Intellectual Property Organization (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

Image: Ma Ki Unsplash CC BY