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Comment by colejohnson66 | Hacker News Reader

A musical performance is copyrightable because it’s an artistic expression of the actual musical instructions (sheet music).[a] It’s why Beethoven isn’t copyrighted (despite many ContentID claims), but performances of Beethoven’s works are.

Choreography instructions are also likely uncopyrightable, but the performances of one would be.

Since recipes are just instructions, they’re not copyrightable.

In short, if it’s data/instructions, it’s likely not copyrightable. But the act of using said data, however, if done “creatively,” is. That distinction is very murky though, and there’s over a century of case law to go with it.

[a]: EDIT: I was wrong, sheet music is copyrightable. Beethoven is just out of copyright.

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Choreography sequences are potentially copyrightable outside of an individual performance, though there's a lot of grey area. https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/how-to-copyright-a-dance

>A musical performance is copyrightable

A recording of a musical performance is copyrightable. But I believe the copyright would belong to whoever made the recording, not the performing musicians (assuming the work being performed is public domain, like Beethoven)

> Choreography instructions are also likely uncopyrightable, but the performances of one would be.

As far as I know, this is almost exactly wrong. Choreography instructions may be copyrightable. A performance of a dance is not subject to copyright, but a video recording of that performance may be.

> To qualify for registration, a choreographic work or pantomime must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression [1]

[1] https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ52.pdf

But sheet music is copyrightable, and it's a set of instructions isn't it?

Yes, like a novel, but the sound of a note isn't.

Beethoven's compositions are in the public domain because he died before Mickey Mouse first appeared on screen, but specific copies of his works may still be covered by the editor's copyright.

For the benefit of non-musicians: Editors, especially of older works, routinely correct mistakes (and sometimes disagree about whether the composer made a mistake!) and depending on how verbose the composer was may add their own indications of speed and volume; in some cases you get instrument-specific annotations as well, e.g. fingerings and bowings in violin parts. The Bach solo violin partitas are immediately recognizable as the Bach solo violin partitas no matter who edited them, but if you're familiar with the editions you can definitely tell which one a violinist learned!

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