Since facts do not owe their origin to an act of authorship, they are not original and, thus, are not copyrightable. The constitutional requirement necessitates independent creation plus a modicum of creativity. 8, of the Constitution mandates originality as a prerequisite for copyright protection. Held: Rural's white pages are not entitled to copyright, and therefore Feist's use of them does not constitute infringement. The District Court granted summary judgment to Rural in its copyright infringement suit, holding that telephone directories are copyrightable. Although Feist altered many of Rural's listings, several were identical to listings in Rural's white pages. When Rural refused to license its white pages listings to Feist for a directory covering 11 different telephone service areas, Feist extracted the listings it needed from Rural's directory without Rural's consent. Petitioner Feist Publications, Inc., is a publishing company that specializes in area-wide telephone directories covering a much larger geographic range than directories such as Rural's. It obtains data for the directory from subscribers, who must provide their names and addresses to obtain telephone service. Pursuant to state regulation, Rural publishes a typical telephone directory, consisting of white pages and yellow pages. Respondent Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc., is a certified public utility providing telephone service to several communities in Kansas.
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