The traditional English approach has been that all independent expression derived through “skill and labor” is protected by copyright.
As a result, this approach has been followed in most common law countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and previously in India. In the United States, some federal appeals courts have included within the definition of originality an element of creativity. Other courts in the U.S. followed the old English test, until a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that creativity was in fact a part of originality standard. The civil law system, on the other hand, has traditionally accepted that to be “original,” a work must reflect the intellectual personality of the author (i.e., it must involve “intellectual creation”). The position of the law in each of these jurisdictions is examined in more detail below.