uncopyrightable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ copyrightable.

Adjective

uncopyrightable (not comparable)

1. (copyright law) Ineligible for copyright.
   • 1984, MJ Touponse, “Application of Copyright Law to Computer Operating System Programs: Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin”, in Connecticut Law Review, page 665:

     […] The four criteria that Congress, courts, and theorists have traditionally employed to distinguish the copyrightable from the uncopyrightable are: […]

   • 1994, R VerSteeg, “Jurimetric Copyright: Future Shock for the Visual Arts”, in Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, page 125:

     […] Keeton, however, resolved that it was the idea/expression dichotomy that forms the boundary line between the copyrightable and the uncopyrightable, […]

   • 2001, R Amanda, “Elvis Karaoke Shakespeare and the Search for a Copyrightable Stage Directions”, in Arizona Law Review, page 677:

     […] to examine those director contributions that help create that overall feel and apply Judge Hand's abstractions test to filter out the uncopyrightable from the copyrightable […]

Noun

uncopyrightable (plural uncopyrightables)

1. That for which no one can obtain copyright.
   • 1960 March, W. J. G., H. K. S., “‘Copyright’ Protection for Uncopyrightables: The Common-Law Doctrines”, in University of Pennsylvania Law Review, volume 108, number 5, pages 699–734:
   • 1969 January, Paul Goldstein, “Federal System Ordering of the Copyright Interest”, in Columbia Law Review, volume 69, number 1, Columbia Law Review Association, Inc., page 71:

     Intrinsic state doctrines are further condemned by Sears and Compco’s second principle for their tendency to extend the equivalent of copyright protection to statutory uncopyrightables.

   • 1974 April, Dane J. Durham, “Goldstein v. California: Validity of State Copyright under the Copyright and Supremacy Clauses”, in Hastings Law Journal volume 25 (1973–4), page 1201,

     Indeed, Judge Hand himself admitted that the harshness of a complete denial of protection for statutory uncopyrightables was a persuasive element in the alternative line of thought.

See also

• List of English isograms