I decided to read up on the laws for choreography and like the rest of copyright law it seems to be confusing at times. There is a big question of originality and expression. Originality seems to come down to the age old question of how much can you take and it still be allowed? There have been few cases that have made it to the Federal courts. It is also interesting to note the process of registering a work with the Copyright Office. The number of aspects that are excluded from protection are quite extensive. I find it noteworthy that the concept is not protected under the law.
I never even thought of registering choreography with the Copyright Office before reading this post. I wonder how one goes about that? Is a video of the dance submitted with noted movement sequences the artist wishes to protect or call his or her own?
I did not even think it was possible to copyright choreography. How does one own a movement? Or how do they prove they own that movement?
I too had been wondering about choreography and what constitutes as a dance with rights to protect. It seems like a difficult task to know where the limits are on a dance. If part of a dance appears similar to another does it violate copyright? I agree with the author that it all seems very confusing.
Seeing as choreography falls under intellectual property, it makes sense that it can be put under copyright. The odd thing is, unlike a book, a picture, or something like that, rather than physical, the nature of choreography is more of a concept. It’s the idea of a sequence of movements. I would assume that copyright targets the choreography as a whole, rather than individual movements within it.