3 - Originality

Abstract

This chapter discusses about “originality,” which refers to the manner and way in which the work is reduced to a material form and not to the originality of the idea upon which the work is based. Copyright acts are not concerned with the originality of ideas, but with the expression of thought, and in the case of literary work, with the expression of thought in print or writing. The originality that is required relates to the expression of the thought. The title of a book, film, or a song would not have copyright protection unless it is so elaborate that some skill and labor must have been involved in its invention. There can be copyright in the abridgment of another copyright work, where the abridgment itself involves skill and labor, even though no original thought in terms of the content has been added. There can be copyright in the arrangement of a piece of music.