Representation in a material form
The next box to tick for copyright to subsist is that the work must be captured in a material form of some sort.
Section 2(2) of the Copyright Act states: ‘A work, except a broadcast or programme-carrying signal, shall not be eligible for copyright unless the work has been written down, recorded, represented in digital data or signals or otherwise reduced to a material form.’
Example: Let’s use a basic example to demonstrate. Say I am a musician and am always dreaming up catchy little melodies. I whistle these jingles to myself and, one day at the Gautrain station, someone overhears my whistling. He memorises the tune, goes away and composes a song with my melody. I’ll be pretty annoyed, right? But I have no copyright on the tune, which was just in my head. It would have been different if I had recorded the tune on my iPhone that morning before leaving home. Then I do have copyright.
It follows from this that mere ideas do not have copyright — they must be recorded or reduced to a material form. The bottom line is that the expression of the idea is what gets protection, not the underlying idea.
To summarise on the boxes to tick so far:
- The work must be original, and
- It must have been recorded in some form.
Now we look at the next requirement for copyright to subsist, and that concerns the author.