drawing setting forth "the existing physical characteristics of the site, including its shape and dimensions, the grade contours, and the location of existing elements, [as] it sets forth facts; copyright does not bar the copying of such facts." Much the same might be said here. See also ATC Distr. Group, Inc. v. Whatever It Takes Transmissions & Parts, Inc., 402 F.3d 700, 712 (6th Cir. 2005) (denying copyright protection to catalog illustrations of transmission parts "copied from photographs cut out of competitors' catalogs”); Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd. v. Corel Corp., 36 F. Supp. 2d 191, 197 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) (denying copyright protection to photographs that were "'slavish copies' of public domain works of art"); Mary Campbell Wojcik, The Antithesis of Originality: Bridgeman, Image Licensors, and the Public Domain, 30 Hastings Comm. & Ent. L. J. 257, 267 (2008) ("[T]he law is becoming increasingly clear: one possesses no copyright interest in reproductions . . . when these reproductions do nothing more than accurately convey the underlying image.").[1]
- ↑ We are not convinced that the single case to which we are pointed where copyright was awarded for a "slavish copy" remains good law after Feist. In Alva Studios, Inc. v. Winninger, 177 F. Supp. 265 (S.D.N.Y. 1959), the court held that a miniature reproduction of Rodin's “Hand of God” was copyrightable because of the great skill it took accurately to replicate Rodin's masterpiece. Feist, however, rejected the notion that skill and hard work suffice for copyright protection, 499 U.S. at 359-60, undermining the very foundation for the holding in Alva Studios. See Patry on Copyright § 3:56 ("Alva appears to have protected labor—albeit labor by a skilled artisan—but still only labor, not judgment. Alva is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's opinion in Feist.").
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