On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 05:38:42PM -0700, Ray
Saintonge wrote:
Andre Engels wrote:
> On Apr 11, 2005 11:42 PM, Edward Peschko <esp5(a)pge.com> wrote:
>
>> What's the legal status of data retrieved from non-public domain
>> sources?
>>
>> I understand that text that is retrieved from copyrighted
>> materials is
>> copyrighted, but how about data and figures that deal with common
>> interest
>> topics? Can you really copyright the amount of wheat grown in a
>> year in
>> bangladesh, or the number of accidents in a year on california
>> roads?
>
> No, you cannot copyright the data itself. What is copyrighted is the
> *representation* of the data, while the *selection* of the data MIGHT
> be copyrighted.
This is a very important distinction. The selection issue can be
difficult, and is most applicable when you are using the same
subset of data as someone else. If you and the other person are
providing complete data that is not a breech since there is only
one way to have everything. :-) Also an obvious form of
representation of the material (such as alphabetical order) is not
copyrightable.
How about augmented data? Ie: say someone has a set of data that
you'd like
to keep in its entirety, but you add some features that text cannot
possibly
have (like, say links to supporting papers for important datapoints,
or zoom-in on graphs). Is that considered copyright infringement?
Augmenting data helps to establish the fact that you are not limiting
yourself to the original author's selection process.. In many of
these cases determining whether there has been a breech of copyright
will never be a black and white situation. We really are looking at
a balance of probabilities.