The U.S. Copyright Office has recently issued a policy statement that revises, and to a certain extent reverses, its prior position regarding the protection of compilations. Here is a summary of the Copyright Office’s decision.

What Is A Protectable Compilation?


For example, a telephone directory that includes every subscriber’s name listed alphabetically, together with their address and phone number, has been determined to lack the minimum level of selection and creativity required to trigger copyright protection. However, a used car price guide that reflects estimated prices selected from a variety of sources including print and online advertisements, live and online auctions, and dealer and private sales, all based on the editor’s opinions and judgments, would be deemed a protectable compilation.

Participants perform yoga exercises during the...

Yoga Pose (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

Categories of Copyrightable Subject Matter


  1. literary works;
  2. musical works, including any accompanying words;
  3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
  4. pantomimes and choreographic works;
  5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
  6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
  7. sound recordings; and
  8. architectural works.



Hundreds of students dance during a 'flashmob'...

Social Dance (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

Yoga Poses and Dance Moves

Applying these principles, the Copyright Office determines that yoga poses, exercise routines and social dance moves do not fall within the congressionally-established categories of authorship. Consequently, the selection, coordination or arrangement of yoga poses, exercise routines or social dance moves would not constitute a compilation that is protectable under copyright law. With respect to dance, it is true that category number four explicitly includes “choreographic works.” However, Congress has decided that such category does not include “social dance steps or simple routines.” According to the Copyright Office, to be protected by copyright, a choreographic work must be a “composition and arrangement of a related series of dance movements and patterns organized into an integrated, coherent, and expressive whole” and “[s]imple dance routines do not represent enough original choreographic authorship to be copyrightable.”

The Copyright Office acknowledges that it has previously overlooked the relationship between copyrightable compilations and the copyrightable subject matter categories. As a result, it has issued copyright registrations in compilations of exercise routines and the like. Based on its new analysis, the Copyright Office states that such prior registrations were mistakenly issued in error.
