Originality is a Requirement

Originality is a constitutional requirement. (Feist)

The only part of a work that is protected by copyright is that which is original to the author.

In two late 19th century decisions, the Supreme Court defined the terms “authors” and “writings.” In doing so, the Court made it absolutely clear that both terms presumed a degree of originality. In one case, the Court determined that for a work to be classified “under the head of writings of authors, originality is required” and that “the writings which are to be protected are the fruits of intellectual labor, embodied in the form of books, prints, engravings, and the like.”(Feist) In another case, the Court defined the term “author,” as far as constitutional requirements, to mean “he to whom anything owes its origin; originator; maker.”(Feist) The court further described copyright as being limited to “original intellectual conceptions of the author,” (Feist) and stressed that an author accusing another of infringement is required to prove "the existence of those facts of originality, of intellectual production, of thought, and conception.(Feist)