Copyright Act, subject matter of copyright, 17 U.S.C. § 102

Section 102(a) provides that copyright protection subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include eight listed categories, the first of which is literary works.

Section 101 defines a computer program as a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result. Section 101 defines literary works as works, other than audiovisual works, expressed in words, numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia, regardless of the nature of the material objects in which they are embodied.

Section 102(b) provides that in no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

The House report says that section 102(b) is intended, among other things, to make clear that the expression adopted by the programmer is the copyrightable element in a computer program, and that the actual processes or methods embodied in the program are not within the scope of the copyright law. The House report also treats computer programs as among the new forms of expression that could be regarded as an extension of copyrightable subject matter Congress had already intended to protect.