Copyright protection does not extend to ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operations, concepts, principles, or discoveries. It does not extend to ideas underlying a work or to the functional or factual aspects of the work. Courts have recognized that works of fiction receive greater protection than works that have strong factual elements, such as historical or biographical works or works that have strong functional elements. Still, works that are merely compilations of fact may be copyrightable. A compilation is entitled to copyright protection if its selection and arrangement of data is original.
Photographs generally are copyrightable.
In, Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel , the court addressed the question of whether photographic transparencies are copyrightable. The Bridgeman court concluded that reproducing works in a collection in the form of photographic transparencies, which then are converted to digital form, without more, would not add the required element of originality to make the reproduction copyrightable. A notice of copyright ownership, although not required, should appear on works for which a creator is claiming copyright ownership. Publication without notice may permit an innocent infringer defense. Nonetheless, because notice no longer is mandatory for copyright ownership, one should not assume that a work without a notice can be copied.