[horsawlarway]

I don't necessarily disagree, but I don't necessarily agree either.

I think the most compelling reference work right now is probably a collage.

> a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing.

And the law there is actually pretty nuanced and tangled: A collage, while not a compilation, may be a collective or a derivative work. A collective work has copyright protection, but a derivative work does not.

So basically, given the current environment I think we're honing in on a super clear and very helpful "sometimes"...

[falcolas]

It's about who created the work (book, painting, code, etc). If it's a human, then it's copyrightable. If it's an AI, then it's not. That's the stance the copyright office has been taking, going so far as to grant partial copyrights if a human substantially changes portions of an AI generated work.