the copyright office itself has contributed to the confusion over the word tangible, as they use it in 2 ways in title 37
http://www.copyright.gov/title37/202.html:
"tangible medium of expression", as in:
Quote:
fixed in a tangible medium of expression, as follows:
(A) For a motion picture, filming of the motion picture must have commenced;
(B) For a sound recording, recording of the sounds must have commenced;
(C) For a musical composition, at least some of the musical composition must have been fixed either in the form of musical notation or in a copy or phonorecord embodying a performance of some or all of the work;
(D) For a literary work being prepared for publication in book form, the actual writing of the text of the work must have commenced;
(E) For a computer program, at least some of the computer code (either source code or object code) must have been fixed; and
(F) For an advertising or marketing photograph, the photograph (or, in the case of a group of photographs intended for simultaneous publication, at least one of the photographs) must have been taken.
|
and "physically tangible"
Quote:
(b) Definitions. For the purposes of this section:
(1) The best edition of a work has the meaning set forth in §202.19(b)(1). For purposes of this section, if a work is first published in both hard copy, i.e. , in a physically tangible format, and also in an electronic format, the current Library of Congress Best Edition Statement requirements pertaining to the hard copy format apply.
|
so, "tangible medium of expression" means set in form, or partially set in form regardless of how or where it's stored, and "physically tangible" is used as a synonym for "hard copy".