[WikiEN-l] Copyright question

[The Cunctator]

On 4/3/07, Sam Blacketer <sam.blacketer at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.


Claiming that it is clear does not make it so. In fact, it is clear that
this is not a violation of 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.


Which has been compiled by Wikipedians, not by the show.