[WikiEN-l] Copyright question

[Sam Blacketer]

The Cunctator cunctator at gmail.com wrote:
> On 4/3/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> > On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:21:12 -0600, Bryan Derksen
> > <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
> > >In this case, the criterion for list membership is "has been on the Top
> > >Gear Cool Wall". This is no more a matter of subjective interpretation
> > >than coming up with a cast list for an ongoing TV show.
> >
> > That is defensible in the case of an individual car, yes.  Like saying
> > it was No. 1 in the charts.  But, as with the charts, including the
> > entire list violates copyright.
>
>Huh? You keep repeating this, but the evidence for the claim just isn't there.

I am not a copyright lawyer (thanks be to God after reading this thread)
but it is quite clear that this list is a violation of copyright. The decision
to put cars in various sections of the 'Cool Wall' is a creative process.
Copying the results of this creative process in its entirety is therefore
a violation of copyright. The copyright rests in the compiling of a list
by arbitrary criteria; compiling a list by objective criteria would not be
copyright.

The Stanford guide to Copyright and fair use is clear:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/0-a.html#1

"the work must be original -- that is, independently created by the
author. It doesn't matter if an author's creation is similar to
existing works, or even if it is arguably lacking in quality,
ingenuity or aesthetic merit. So long as the author toils without
copying from someone else, the results are protected by copyright.

Finally, to receive copyright protection, a work must be the result of
at least some creative effort on the part of its author. There is no
hard and fast rule as to how much creativity is enough. As one
example, a work must be more creative than a telephone book's white
pages, which involve a straightforward alphabetical listing of
telephone numbers rather than a creative selection of listings."

What we have here is a creative selection of listings.

-- 
Sam Blacketer
London E15