As far as I understand it, these figures would be derivative works from public domain works... and their author would get copyright ! Cordialement, Jean-Baptiste Soufron, Doctorant CERSA - CNRS, Paris 2 http://soufron.free.fr

Le 11 avr. 05, à 23:42, Edward Peschko a écrit : > hey all, > > sorry if this is a FAQ - and I'm not sure if this question belongs in > this > mailing list - but since it concerns the legal side of the fence wrt > wikipedia contributions here goes: > > 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? > > > And how about graphs? Is data that is extrapolated from graphs and > used in derivative graphs considered a 'creative work' of its own? > > > I'd think so, but I just want to be sure.. > > Ed > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >

On Apr 11, 2005 11:42 PM, Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron(a)gmail.com> wrote: > As far as I understand it, these figures would be derivative works > from > public domain works... and their author would get copyright ! >

Yes, that is right, the person/organisation that compiled the data gets credit for their work - it is in the public domain but we still need to reference the source. The same goes for graphs - a representation of data is itself copyright, though you can make your own graph from the data and refer to the source, ie. World Bank, UNDP or whatever. Correct me if I am wrong.. Cormac > Le 11 avr. 05, à 23:42, Edward Peschko a écrit : >> hey all, >>> sorry if this is a FAQ - and I'm not sure if this question belongs in >> this >> mailing list - but since it concerns the legal side of the fence wrt >> wikipedia contributions here goes: >>> 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? >>>> And how about graphs? Is data that is extrapolated from graphs and >> used in derivative graphs considered a 'creative work' of its own? >>>> I'd think so, but I just want to be sure.. >>> Ed >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org >> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

On Apr 11, 2005 11:42 PM, Edward Peschko <esp5(a)pge.com> wrote: 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.

Yes, I would not see what 'creative work' in making the graph would be included in such data. The copyright on the graph is not on the data represented, but in the representation (e.g. the width-to-height ratio, the colours used, etcetera).

Note: I am not even close to being a lawyer

On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 05:38:42PM -0700, Ray Saintonge wrote: 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?

I am not a lawyer, but, in the United States at least, isn't Feist v. Rural relevant?