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, Third Edition public domain material, or third party material that appears in the work. In other words, the copyright in a derivative work is “independent of, and does not affect or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the preexisting material.” 17 U.S.C. § 103(b).

Derivative works often contain previously published material, previously registered material, public domain material, or material owned by a third party because by definition they are based upon one or more preexisting works. If a derivative work contains an appreciable amount of unclaimable material, the applicant generally should limit the to the new material that the author contributed to the work, and the unclaimable material should be excluded from the claim. For guidance on this procedure, see. By contrast, there is generally no need to limit the claim if the derivative work is solely based on or derived from material, unregistered material, or  material that is owned by the  named in the application.

The author of a derivative work may claim copyright in a work that recasts, transforms, or adapts a preexisting work, provided that the preexisting material has been used in a lawful manner. Section 103(a) of the Copyright Act states that the copyright in a derivative work “does not extend to any part of the work” that “unlawfully” uses preexisting material. 17 U.S.C. § 103(a). As discussed in, this provision is intended to prevent “an infringer from benefiting, through copyright protection, from committing an unlawful act.” , at 57, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5671. The unlawful use of preexisting material may also infringe the right of reproduction and/or the right to prepare derivative works based upon that material.

508&emsp;Compilations

This Section provides the definition and a general discussion concerning. For information concerning the Office’s practices and procedures for evaluating the copyrightability of compilations, see. For guidance in preparing an application to register a compilation see, , , , and.

508.1&emsp;What Is a Compilation?

The Copyright Act defines a as “a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.” 17 U.S.C. § 101.

As the legislative history explains, “[a] ‘compilation’ results from a process of selecting, bringing together, organizing, and arranging previously existing material of all kinds, regardless of whether the individual items in the material have been or ever could have been subject to copyright.”, at 57, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5670; , at 55. Chapter 500 : 28