Copyright cases require plaintiffs to prove specific elements to establish a valid claim. Understanding these requirements is necessary for both copyright holders seeking to protect their work and defendants facing allegedly infringing allegations. This post examines the fundamental elements of copyright infringement, focusing on the analysis of the copying requirement. Because the Court of Appeals …
Category: selection and arragement
Understanding the Originality Requirement in Copyright Law
Copyright law protects original works of authorship, but the definition of “originality” often creates layers of confusion among creators and authors (referred to as “authors”). At its core, the originality requirement establishes a threshold of creativity that must be met before a work qualifies for copyright protection. The Baseline for Originality Originality is the “bedrock …
Understanding the Selection-and-Arrangement Theory in Copyright Law
Introduction In copyright infringement cases, courts must determine whether one work impermissibly copies another’s protected expression. While the widely used “extrinsic test” focuses on comparing specific elements between works, the selection-and-arrangement theory offers a different analytical framework that recognizes that creativity often lies in how creators select, coordinate, and arrange elements—even when the individual components …