HR 3261 and the ownership of facts
Posted Jan 29, 2004 4:26 UTC (Thu) by
Per_Bothner (subscriber, #7375)
Parent article:
HR 3261 and the ownership of facts
In a sense, this law allows somebody who compiles a database to own the facts found therein.
The compilation, but not individual facts.
If you go about reproducing Linus Torvalds quotes, you better be prepared to prove that they did not come from our definitive collection.
You can reproduce a few quotes, even if you use the datebase,
as long as you don't quote a "quantively substantial part" of it.
U.S. law has long held that expression is copyrightable, but ideas and facts are not. HR 3261 overrides that tradition by giving database creators a degree of control over the facts they have collected from elsewhere.
It's compatible with the tradition: The facts are not copyrightable,
but the collection is an expression that might be copyrightable.
Where the extension is in allowing a noncreative (mechanical)
expression of facts to be copyrightable.
The classical example is telephone directories, which in current law
can be freely copied, but not according to HR 3261.
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