 The idea-expression dichotomy was formulated to ensure that the

manifestation of an idea (i.e. an expression) is protected rather than the

idea itself. The doctrine has been widely used in the United States and is
not really alien to Indian jurisprudence. Courts have repeatedly opined
that ideas per se are not copyrightable; only the expression of an idea is
copyrightable. An idea is the formulation of thought on a particular
subject whereas an expression constitutes the implementation of the
said idea. While many persons may individually arrive at the same idea,
they can claim copyright only in the form of an expression to this idea.
Such expression must be a specific, particular arrangement of words,
designs or other forms. Thus, such a doctrine allows for several
expressions to be available for the same idea.
 According to Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act of 1976, no “idea,
procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or
discovery” is eligible for copyright protection.
 Copyright does not prevent others from using the ideas or information
shown by the author’s work. It relates to the literary, musical, graphic, or
artistic form in which the author articulated intellectual concepts.
Section 102(b) makes it clear that the protection of copyright does not
cover any idea, technique, procedure, system, manner of operation,
idea, norm, or discovery, irrespective of the form in which it is defined,
elucidated, demonstrated, or embodied in such work.
 Some concern has been expressed in the case of copyright in computer
programs that should extend protection to the method or procedures
implemented by the programmer, rather than merely to expressing his
ideas via “writing”x. Section 102(b) is intended, amid other things, to
make clear that the expression implemented by the programmer is the
copyrightable component in a computer program, and that the real
processes or methods embodied in the program are not within the range
of the copyright law.Section 102(b) in no way expands or contracts the
range of copyright protection under the existent law. Its purpose is to
restate, in the perspective of the new single Federal system of copyright,
that the basic dichotomy concerning expression and idea remains
unbothered.
What is the scope and extent of non-literal copyright of GALAXY?