The absence of creativity in Feist and the computational process

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1991 in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Service Co. affirmed originality as a constitutional requirement for copyright. Originality has a specific sense and is constituted by a minimal degree of creativity and independent creation. The not original is the more developed concept within the decision. It includes the absence of a minimal degree of creativity, as a major constituent. Different levels of absence of creativity are also distinguished, from the extreme absence of creativity to insufficient creativity. There is a gestalt effect of analogy between the delineation of the not original and the concept of computability. More specific correlations can be found within the extreme absence of creativity. `[S]o mechanical' in the decision can be correlated with an automatic mechanical procedure and clauses with a historical resonance with understandings of computability as what would naturally be regarded as computable. The ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: JASIS
• Authors: Julian Warner
• Keywords: Creativity, Extreme Absence, JASIS 2010, Minimal Degree