Introduction to Copyright: What Copyright Covers (part 1 of 4)

In this video, the first of four, Ana Enriquez describes what copyright covers, including what's required for getting a copyright, how long copyright lasts, and what's in the public domain. To follow up on this video, visit our copyright website. This video was recorded in October 2020.

The following resources relate to this video:

• Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution from the National Archives: Clause 8 is the Copyright Clause.
• Feist v. Rural from the Oyez Project: Feist is the Supreme Court case about the white pages of a phone book, which laid out the law of copyrightability.
• Chapter 300, Copyrightable Authorship, of The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Page 13 of this chapter gives the example of copyrightable compilation consisting of a list of the author’s favorite restaurants.
• 17 U.S. Code § 102 – Subject matter of copyright: In general: Section 102(a) gives us the originality and fixation requirements. 102(b) is the list of items that are not copyrightable.
• 17 U.S. Code § 105 – Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works: Section 105 is what excludes nearly all works of the federal government from U.S. copyright.
• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: This chart from Cornell summarizes U.S. law pertaining to public domain status.
• Is it in the Public Domain?: This handbook from Berkeley gives definitions and examples related to public domain status.