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.