Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Clarification

Author:Adam Trachtenberg
Posted:9/1/1999; 11:58:58 AM
Topic:130 RSS newsfeeds from Moreover.com
Msg #:10414 (In response to 10382)
Prev/Next:10413 / 10415

Additionally, from what I'm told, public information isn't protected by copyright, only the presentation of that information is protected. For instance, it's illegal for me to take a phonebook, photocopy all the pages, and sell them. It's legal for me to scan in all the names and numbers, put them in a database, and allow people to search them. Or, for me to retypeset the information and print a different book.

Now, clearly, the person assembling the phone numbers expends significant energies validating and cleaning up their data, but none of that is protected. Likewise, food recipes aren't copyrightable. Well, you can place a copyright on the exact recipe, but if I alter the amount of one ingredient by a smidgen, then that's okay.

A significant issue here is that computers allow the harvesting and processing of information with significantly less burden and hassle than before and laws haven't necessarily updated to cope with this.

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