WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Several categories of material are generally not eligible for Federal copyright
protection. These include among others: 

 *  Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression, (for
example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or
improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or
recorded). 

 *  Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere
variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings
of ingredients or contents.  

 *  Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles,
discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or
illustration. 

 *  Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and
containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and
weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public
documents or other common sources). 

U.S. Copyright Office
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000

[email protected]
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
11/10/98

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