A professor at the University of Michigan,
formally filed and received a copyright for a collection of cards. Under this filing, his "Angels and Demons" deck, is officially recognized as his own exclusive intellectual property, which gives him various legal rights when it comes to official use. Hovden then teased that he could prohibit this deck from being used in tournament play. When asked why he made this filing, Hovden stated it was about, "owning culture and people’s participation in culture through copyright."
There are a lot of things to unpack here. First, there is some precedent for this
Magic copyright filing thanks to some digging by
journalist Cory Doctorow. When it comes to copyright law, the protections are based on expressions of creativity, rather than say of hard work. Because of this, complete collections of materials hold no protection, but a curated collection of materials carries some protection since it reflects the holder's subjective input. In other words, Hovden "curated" the specific cards from the thousands in print right now for
Magic The Gathering and legally declared that the ones assembled in this collection are distinguishable enough to be given a certain level of copyright protection.
This
Magic copyright filing is meant to imply that anyone can do the exact same thing on a bigger scale. Similar filings could happen for entire decks, effectively marking them as legally distinct IP separate from Wizards of the Coast's very franchise. Imagine a pro player winning a tournament with a certain deck, filing a copyright on that deck, and then seeking legal action against anyone who tries to use it.