Titles and phrases also may be too short to rise above the de minimis
standard for originality of creative expression. News aggregators claim that
headlines, and sometimes leads, do not qualify for copyright protection
because they are too short and highly factual.196 Short headlines “generally
seek to encapsulate the factual content of the story,”197 which would make the
expression and facts inseparable and subject to the merger doctrine.198 Media
organizations, however, emphasize the creative importance of a headline to
capture the reader’s attention.199