The Fixation Requirement and the Copyright Act

Rayming Chang, George Washington University Law School, has published “A Work Is a Work Is a Work: There is No Fixation Requirement Inherent in the Terms “Work” Or “Derivative Work” Under the Copyright Act” as a working paper. Here is the abstract.

This working paper argues that there is no fixation requirement inherent in the terms “work” or “derivative work” under the 1976 Copyright Act. The paper analyzes the Copyright Office’s assertion that a work by definition must be fixed and refutes that interpretation by analyzing statutory language, case law, and legislative history.

Download the entire working paper from SSRN here.