Originality

Essay — Volume 95, Issue 6

95 Va. L. Rev. 1505
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In this Essay we introduce a model of copyright law that calibrates authors’ rights and liabilities to the level of originality in their works. We advocate this model as a substitute for the extant regime that unjustly and inefficiently grants equal protection to all works satisfying the “modicum of creativity” standard. Under our model, highly original works will receive enhanced protection and their authors will also be sheltered from suits by owners of preexisting works. Conversely, authors of less original works will receive diminished protection and incur greater exposure to copyright liability. We operationalize this proposal by designing separate rules for highly original works, for works exhibiting average originality, and for works that are minimally original or unoriginal. We illustrate our rules’ application by showing how they could have altered court decisions in classic copyright cases in a socially beneficial way.

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  Volume 95 / Issue 6  

National Security Fact Deference

By Robert M. Chesney
95 Va. L. Rev. 1361

Intent to Contract

By Gregory Klass
95 Va. L. Rev. 1437

Originality

By Gideon Parchomovsky and Alex Stein
95 Va. L. Rev. 1505

Separate, But Equal? Virginia’s “Independent” Cities and the Purported Virtues of Voluntary Interlocal Agreements

By David K. Roberts
95 Va. L. Rev. 1551