Opinion ID: 657247
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Process-Expression Dichotomy

Text: 36 Although it is the idea-expression distinction that has received the primary attention in the cases construing copyright protection, the Copyright Act denies protection to other equally important program elements. When considering utilitarian works such as computer programs one of the most important of these elements is process. See Englund, 88 Mich.L.Rev. 866. 17 U.S.C. Sec. 102(b) denies protection to procedures, processes, systems and methods of operation. 13 The legislative history of the Copyright Act clarifies any ambiguity about the status of processes. 37 Some concern has been expressed lest copyright in computer programs should extend protection to the methodology or processes adopted by the programmer, rather than merely to the writing expressing his ideas. Section 102(b) is intended, among other things, to make clear that the expression adopted by the programmer is the copyrightable element in a computer program, and that the actual processes or methods embodied in the program are not within the scope of the copyright law. 38 H.R.Rep. No. 1476, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 57 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5659, 5670. 39 The Supreme Court addressed the copyrightability of a utilitarian process in Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 25 L.Ed. 841 (1879). There, the Court considered whether the author of a book describing an accounting system could obtain protection over the system itself through copyright of the book. The Court distinguished the art or process from the author's explanation thereof and found the former unprotectable. Baker, 101 U.S. at 104. Other courts have similarly found processes unprotectable. See e.g., Altai, 982 F.2d at 704; Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 975 F.2d 832, 838-39 (Fed.Cir.1992). Certain processes may be the subject of patent law protection under Title 35 of the United States Code. See Atari Games, 975 F.2d at 839-40; Englund, 88 Mich.L.Rev. at 893-94. Although processes themselves are not copyrightable, an author's description of that process, so long as it incorporates some originality, may be protectable. See Applied Innovations, Inc. v. Regents of the Univ. of Minnesota, 876 F.2d 626, 636 (8th Cir.1989); Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp., 714 F.2d 1240, 1250-51 (3d Cir.1983), cert. dismissed, 464 U.S. 1033, 104 S.Ct. 690, 79 L.Ed.2d 158 (1984). 40 Returning then to our levels of abstraction framework, we note that processes can be found at any level, except perhaps the main purpose level of abstraction. Most commonly, processes will be found as part of the system architecture, as operations within modules, or as algorithms. 41