[dctoedt]

Radiology technicians do more than just press a button: Every time I've had an X-ray or other imaging, the tech has positioned me; told me to move my arms and/or legs and/or torso and/or head; had me turn just a bit this way or that; etc. I could easily see how a court would conclude that this involved sufficient creativity that the image would constitute an "original work of authorship."

Speaking as a (former) litigator, I think you have a misimpression about what lawyers and judges do in our common-law judicial system. In part, we deal with edge- and corner cases that simply aren't clearly addressed in the statute. (If you're a software developer, you're surely familiar with the phenomenon.)

It could be argued that in a civil case, if a statute doesn't clearly allow the plaintiff to recover, then the court should simply deny the requested relief. But that's not how the Anglo-American system works. Anciently, to help keep the peace, common-law judges tried to figure out, "what would the King do if he were here?" Likewise, in our modern system, they ask, "what was the intent of [Parliament | Congress | the state legislature] in an edge- or corner case like this?" and to grant or deny relief accordingly. Is that a perfect system? No. But it has worked reasonably well for centuries, and so there'd be a huge path-dependence problem in trying to change it.