On Mon, Oct 11, 2004 at 10:47:50AM -0700, Daniel Mayer wrote:
--- Magnus Manske magnus.manske@web.de wrote:
While I basically agree with both notions, I can see that someone investing money in getting to Zaire and taking precise measurements, or in sequencing some DNA and determining what it does (broadly speaking), should get something in return. If the question is no information vs. information to pay for, the latter is preferable, IMHO. But, patents are likely the wrong way, and Wikipedians traveling to Zaire and taking down coordinates would certainly be best :-)
It also takes effort and money to obtain a photograph of a painting whose copyright is in the public domain. Yet the resulting photograph is not protected by copyright.
Creating a map is a creative work while making an almost exact copy of a picure is not. That is what matters regarding copyright.
(I don't know how much work is needed to create a map - probably it's not that scary nowadays, being able to trace aerial photos - but I guess it's many magnitude more work than going to British Museum and taking a photo. I wouldn't debate that it contains creative work, and lots of it.)
my 2 'cents, grin