Yoga cannot be copyrighted

Bay Guy Posted 2012-06-22 2:14 PM (#210620) Subject: Yoga cannot be copyrighted Expert Yogi Posts: 2479 Location: A Blue State U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE WILL REFUSE TO REGISTER COMPILATIONS OF FUNCTIONAL PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS -- Today the U.S. Copyright Office published a Federal Register notice on its policies for registering compilations and choreographic works. Only those works of authorship provided in section 102(a) of the Copyright Act are eligible for registration as compilations. The Office will refuse to register compilations of works not listed in Copyright Act section 102(a), including functional physical movements like exercises, yoga poses, sports moves, and other ordinary motor activities. Moreover, even though section 102(a) includes “choreographic works,” compilations of functional physical movements “do not represent the type of authorship intended to be protected” as choreographic works. Rather, copyright registration for choreographic works requires composition and arrangement of a related series of dance movements and patterns organized into an “integrated, coherent, and expressive whole.” The Office said any existing registration certificates for compilations of functional physical movements were issued in error.