Copyright does not protect ideas, just how they are expressed.  Copying text generally violates copyright (although there are exceptions in which quoting is permitted), but copyright places no restrictions whatsoever on using ideas.


  For example, can I refuse other people to use the original idea of my paper?


No, using your ideas is not enough to turn another paper into a derivative work.


  Or can I forbid them using an original technical procedure described in my paper?


No, copyright is not relevant.  It keeps people from copying your description of the procedure; instead, they have to rewrite it in their own words.  However, copyright has nothing to do with using the procedure.

Patents could be relevant, if the technical procedure is patented, but that's completely different from copyright (and there are no automatic patents, the way people automatically get copyright).  You could certainly debate whether patents are a problem for science, but this has nothing to do with copyright.


  Or what about copying graphs or figures?


Copyright does prohibit reproducing graphs or figures (again with some exceptions, such as fair use in the U.S.).  However, it's OK to create a different graph/figure that conveys the same information.

Should a scientific paper have copyright?
From the perspective of a Ph.D. student, how much of an added value is it to have your own presentation slides layout, that is used consistently throughout your Ph.D. conference presentations and other talks (and possibly throughout your academic career afterwards)?

Here is one such example from the Computer Science community.

This as as opposed to using existing Beamer templates with LaTeX, or built-in PowerPoint templates, or simply preparing each presentation on its own (without a specific layout).

A couple of axes I can think along:


Creating a signature layout that distinguishes one in their community
Ease of preparation of presentations (especially over time), maybe overcoming constraints with existing templates.


Note that I am not concerned with the question of content, but just design and layout.
