[Wikipedia-l] Collection copyrights

[Axel Boldt]

Just a quick clarification on collection copyrights: if you put
together a collection of materials, then you acquire a copyright in
your particular presentation of the collection, not in the materials
of the collection themselves. 

This means that Bomis' collection copyright would be violated if
somebody were to copy the website wholesale. If on the other hand the
wiki sources of the articles are downloaded one by one, and a new web
site created out of those, then Bomis' collection copyright won't be
violated. If this new web site doesn't offer the articles under GFDL,
then the individual article authors could sue of course.

This is similar to a Linux distribution. If you create a distribution,
you can claim collection copyright, and somebody who copies the CDROM
image without permission is in violation. Everybody can however create
their own distribution out of the exact same free software components
that you used, without violating your collection copyright.


Axel