Copyright: Idea vs. Expression (1 Viewer)

[softwareAddict]

Hey everyone, i was researching copyright from some homework we got in software today and came across this definition:

Copyright protection is free and automatic in Australia and protects the original expression of ideas, and not the ideas themselves.

What does it mean by the expression of the ideas? Could someone please give me an example?
Thanks!

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

The way I understand it, patents protect ideas, copyrights protect expressions of ideas (i.e. tangible manifestations of those ideas). For example, you can't copyright the idea of a search engine, or a band name, but you can copyright the code used to write that search engine, or a song that the band produces. Pretty much, anything that is literary, visual, audible, physical etc. can be copyright protected (songs, movies, poems, ...), otherwise it can't be copyright protected.