A Fine Line: The Ins and Outs of Copyright Law

Barry Werbin participated in a Q&A with Blouin ARTINFO regarding copyright law in the realm of visual art, including the two concepts that factor into a work having copyright protection. "One is called idea-expression dichotomy, which is the difference between the idea and expression. If I have an idea, but the expression of the idea is done differently, it is not infringement. The other concept is scènes à faire and its related merger doctrine. In the real world, there are things that just are what they are, and you can't have a monopoly on that, or there is essentially only one way to depict a concept or idea."