Lesson 6 - Copyright 5:

It's OK to Copy Facts and Ideas

There are some things that aren't "copying" for copyright purposes:

Copying the FACTS from someone else's work isn't considered copying. If a physicist discovers a law of nature, or a historian uncovers some facts about the past, everyone will be free to copy this information. And this is true even if they've invested years of effort into their discoveries - facts are in the public domain. But copying the *words* someone uses to express the facts, and often the *selection* and *arrangement*;of the facts, still isn't allowed.
Copying an IDEA from someone else's work isn't considered copying for copyright purposes (though in some situations it might violate rights under the *patent* laws). Thus, even if I'm the first person to think about writing a courtroom drama set in a virtual cybercourt, everyone is free to copy this idea.

Of course, people again aren't free to copy the WORDS I use to express this idea, and they may not be free to copy the *details* of the plot, if the details are detailed enough. How detailed is too detailed? That's the $65,536 question -- it's very hard to tell, and sometimes it takes a lawsuit to find out.

authors:

Larry Lessig David Post Eugene Volokh

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