Page:Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices, II (1984).pdf/79

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400-3

404

Musical content.(cont'd)

404.04

Works consisting entirely of information that is common property. Works consisting entirely of information that is common property are not subject to copyright. 37 C.F.R. 202.01(d). Diatonic and chromatic scales, as such are considered works consisting entirely of information that is common property. Thus, works of this kind are excluded from copyright protection.

${ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 4/4 \relative c' { c8 d e f g a b c | b16 bes a aes g ges f e ees d des c c'4 } }$

404.05

"Melodiousness" and harmony. "Me1odiousness" and conventional (triadic) harmony are not criteria for registration. A musical composition based on a tone row, or a quarter-tone scale, for example, may be accepted for registration. Claims to copyright in composition with harmony based on intervals of seconds, fourths, or any other combination of tones may also be registered.

405

Physical embodiment of musical works. Music may be embodied in either copies or phonorecords. No basic registration is possible, however, without some kind of physical representation of the work—a copy, or phonorecord, or, where applicable, identifying material. See Chapter 800: DEPOSIT FOR REGISTRATION.

405.01

Physical embodiment: copies. The term "copies" includes every kind of embodiment of the work acceptable for registration,

except phonorecords and certain identifying material.

405.01(a)

Copies required before 1978. Until 1978, a copy was the only form in which a musical work could be accepted for registration. Various kinds of copies, however, were acceptable.

[1984]