[sac-board] Re: Fw: copyrighted or public domain of double stardata base
- From: Paul Dickson <dickson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: SAC-Board@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 03:35:55 -0700
On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 20:26:53 -0700, Jeff Hopkins wrote:
> > 2.1.4 Can facts, databases and compilations be copyrighted?
> >
> >Facts cannot be copyrighted. However, the creative selection, coordination
> >and arrangement of information and materials forming a database or
> >compilation may be protected by copyright. Note, however, that the copyright
> >protection only extends to the creative aspect, not to the facts contained
> >in the database or compilation.
> >
> >So, it is copyrighted unless we say otherwise.
> >
>
> I do not understand that conclusion. The files are mostly text files.
> The data portion is just data, no creativity involved, someone just
> compiled the data ( a lot of work, but no creativity).
>
> The data is NOT copyrighted! To state so will just look foolish!
The bringing together of the various other databases and the contents of
the DESCR and NOTES field might be enough to warrant a copyright. But add
in a dollar, and you could buy a can of soda too.
In other words, while club members may own the copyright of the
database, it would be too costly to defend and we might lose anyways
(especially if a copier used a subset which could come from original
sources).
Steve Coe's printing from the Double-Star database a few months ago has a
better copyright basis than the database itself. Steve used a little
creativity in order to format and print those notebooks.
If we really wanted a defendable copyright on the database, then we must
either add to it or limit it. We could add our observations or we could
encode the database into a Java application which searches/displays the
data. (I'm against the latter suggestion, I'm just using it as an
example.)
If there is any discussion about changing/updating the database, that
should be moved to the SAC-Forum mailing list.
* * *
For the most part, this discussion is mostly moot. SAC's not making
money on this database, so there's no financial hardship if someone
violates the club's copyrights. So unless there's significant money
involved, it's unlikely anything will be done to violators.
* * *
I looked this up for my three books (see one here [1]). I believe my
formating and creation of the finder charts is enough to make my books
copyrightable (I do have the certificates from the Copyright Office).
-Paul
[1] = http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/Book_110BestOfNGC.htm
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