The limit of copyright for &quot;generics&quot;
<p>If something is "generic" then there can be a copyright question. Is it easy to know what is "generic" and what is copyright, for example an innovation can't be "generic" and have a copyright iiuc. </p>

<p>For example, if I make a website and then somebody sues me and says the code belongs to them, then they must prove that the code is not "generic" to have a copyright, unless it was already proven that the code had a copyright. </p>

<p>Did I understand correctly? This is not an actual case, I'm wondering what I can expect to claim copyright on for myself and others. </p>

<p>In my language we say "height of technology" e g that you must prove a "technology" to claim a copyright or a patent, but maybe the question is only about legal formalism since you can get copyright on almost anything (well maybe not code like "Hello World!"). </p>

<p>They need to prove first that you <em>copied</em>. Well, not prove, but provide evidence that it is more likely that you copied than not. If something doesn't fall under copyright (for example a list of all numbers from 1 to 10,000) then usually it's hard to prove that you copied it. Your list of numbers from 1 to 10,000 can be identical to mine without any copying. </p>

<p>To avoid complications, don't copy.</p>

<p>You are confusing two <em>different</em> types of intellectual property.</p>

<h2>Copyright</h2>

<p>Exists in creative literary and artistic works automatically from the moment of their creation.</p>

<p>It covers traditional literary works like novels, newspaper articles, letters, architect's and engineer's plans etc. as well as more modern concepts like blog posts, emails, tweets (if they are sufficiently creative), your question here and my answer. It also covers computer <em>code</em>: it does not cover algorithms.</p>

<p>It covers traditional artistic works like paintings, sculpture, architecture etc. as well as more modern concepts like audio recordings, video recordings, web page designs etc.</p>

<p>A copyright holder has the right to decide if and under what circumstances another person can <em>copy</em> or make <em>derivative works</em> from their work.</p>

<p>There does not have to be anything particularly innovative in the work for it to get the benefit of copyright; there just has to be some creative effort stored in a durable form (e.g. on paper, on a hard drive, on film etc.). For that reason, <em>facts</em> are not subject to copyright but the arrangement of facts (like an encyclopaedia) are.</p>

<h2>Patent</h2>

<p>This IP concept applies to inventions: a machine, a drug, a process, a piece of manufactured genetic code etc.</p>

<p>You do not get the benefit of a patent automatically, you have to apply for it. In order for it to be granted your invention must be new, useful and non-obvious.</p>

copyright patents