The article deals with the concepts of “originality”, “form” and “idea” in terms of their relationship to the problem of copyright. Formation of the first laws on the protection of creativity parallels the formation of modern European entity as the holder of individuality. The author does not just hover to the reader ideas, which convey in the air, but creates new content, putting ideas in their original form. The article makes an attempt to trace German philosophical concepts, which are especially important for the copyright. The concepts of “ideas” and "forms" in Kant's philosophy are closely related to the creative ability of the imagination. Originality is inherent in both forms and ideas – but if the originality of idea is in its geniality, the originality of form is entirely the merit of the work of imagination of the writer. G.V.F. Hegel spoke about the difficulty of defining the boundaries of the fair use of works, because inevitably there is a chain of debt, citations, repetitions.The original form of the work is the subject of protection by copyright. On the contrary, the idea could not be protected in principle, and therefore it is freely available.