Understanding our nation’s copyright law is important, but also complex. Re:Create’s glossary of key copyright terms is a resource to help promote informed discussions about copyright policy. 

Originality: Copyright only protects original works of expression, not facts, ideas, or discoveries. Any work or aspect of a work that is not original to the author – a fact they discover in the world, for example – is exempt from copyright, and can be shared and reused freely by others.

Why It Matters: In Feist v. Rural Telephone Co, the Supreme Court ruled that because of the requirement of originality, “all facts—scientific, historical, biographical, and news of the day…are part of the public domain available to every person.” This holding should play an important role as courts consider copyright challenges to AI. If AI outputs are unprotected facts, that should weigh in the AI tools’ favor. The Feist Court explained that copyright “assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This principle, known as the idea/expression or fact/expression dichotomy, applies to all works of authorship.” The Court later explained in Eldred v. Ashcroft that this principle is a “built-in First Amendment accommodation” in copyright law.