[Foundation-l] Legal issue: info un-freely available digitally, freely available non-digitally

[Toby Bartels]

Gerrit wrote in part:

>The copyright [2] clearly states that information may not be
>redistributed, etc., etc. However, the postal code is freely available
>from other sources, though not in digital form. The geographical
>coordinates only state where the town is located: this information can
>also be retrieved without the map machine. Does the copyright statement
>apply to this information?


COPYRIGHT DOES NOT APPLY TO INFORMATION.


I put this in all caps not to be annoying,
but to highlight how fundamental and important this is.
You can't copy the maps, which have been designed;
just as you can't copy a paragraph of factual text,
which has been written.  But you can copy data.
The postal code "XYZ123" and the coordinates "23N56' 12E9'"
are not covered by copyright law (at least not in the US,
where Wikimedia's servers reside).

>Is it legal to retrieve postal codes and geographical coordinates from
>this map machine? I'd use the geographical coordinates to describe where
>the town is located (north, south, east, west, maybe "near Zurich"), all
>automated.

Yes.  IANAL, but several lawyers have told me this before.

It's possible for information to be covered under Trade Secret law,
but that doesn't affect Wikipedia's relationship to your submission.
You should know if you've signed a nondisclosure agreement. ^_^

It's even possible that copying information like postal codes
violates the Terms of Use of the web site that you visited.
I suspect that web site's Terms of Use have very little legal force;
but even so, the only danger should be your personal liability --
Wikipedia's use of the information is still free from copyright.

If you want to automate things, then you need to get a registered bot.
It may well be good policy not to use a bot that violates Terms of Use.
I don't know what bot policy is like these days.


-- Toby