What May Be Copyrighted

Note: I am not an attorney. The following are generalizations only based on my study of copyright law and are not meant to be construed as legal advice. If you have a question, consult a competent attorney specializing in copyrights and intellectual property law.

Your material must meet the three criteria set down by the copyright statutes:

It is a work of authorship.
It is an original work.
It is fixed in a tangible medium.

Items which qualify for copyright protection include original compositions, arrangements of public domain works, authorized arrangements of non-public domain works, books, plays, poems, magazine articles (fiction and non-fiction), video and audio recordings, translations, business proposals, software programs, and mechanical/architectural drawings.

A tangible medium may include committing it to paper, stone tablet, fabric, computer screen, computer disk, on-line media (newsgroups, web sites) or any other medium which has a concrete form.

You may not copyright an idea, method, title, fact, or a short phrase.

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