Page:Veeck v Southern Building Code Congress Intl.pdf/62

 term of art which does not track its everyday, dictionary meaning. What constitutes an "idea" in the lexicon of copyright law cannot be determined by empirically analyzing a given fact situation until the nascent dividing line between the "idea" and its "expression" finally crystallizes; indeed, just the reverse is true. Case law reveals that identification of the "idea" in a work is not the starting point but the result of a judicial exercise that in turn is highly dependent on the precise factual situation being tested. Therefore, designation of the enacted code as an idea vel non is a legal conclusion to be reached by a court, not an initial factual finding to be gleaned intuitively. That determination of idea is not antecedent to a policy determination regarding the "copyrightability" of the code; to the contrary, it is the logical