copyright
Can a Pub Quiz be copyrighted? What about the Final Results spreadsheet?
<p>This may seem a bit inane, but I'm having a minor tête-à-tête with a local Quiz Master. Our weekly quiz is 10 rounds of a certain topic with 10 questions per round. Each round is displayed for about 5 minutes on TV screens around the room, answers are handed in and graded, the correct answers are read out loud and then the next round appears.</p>

<p>The QM claims that the questions are copyrighted. Doesn't want people taking pictures of the questions.</p>

<p>The QM also claims that taking pictures of the Final Results Spreadsheet (Team A in 1st place with xx points. Team B in 2nd place with yy points. etc.) is plagiarism.</p>

<p>I think the QM is spouting nonsense. "I don't think that word means what you think it means."</p>

<p>I'd like to rebuke these claims, but can't find anything that references quizzes.</p>

<p>Help?</p>

<p>As for plagiarism, that is not a legal concept, so he can define plagiarism however he wants. It certainly isn't, under any definition I have ever seen on Earth and I have seen many (it has to do with "claiming someone else's work as your own").</p>

<p>As for copyright, a set of questions is (potentially) protected by copyright. If they are copied from somebody else's book of questions, then the book author (or publisher) holds copyright. Let's say that QM invented the questions, such as "What is the Turkish word for Janissary?", "What is the most prominent feature of Jannissary garb?" and so on. Then that set of questions, when put down in fixed form, are protected by copyright, and cannot be copied without permission.</p>
