-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dan Rosenthal wrote: > (This is meant as a reply to GerardM, not WJhonson) > > Pure data such as longitude and latitude, in the US, is treated > significantly differently from the act of creation and > determination of a map, particularly one that involves "inherent > pictorial or photographic nature". > > "It is true that maps are factual compilations insofar as their > subject matter is concerned. Admittedly, most maps present > information about geographic relationships, and the "accuracy" of > this presentation, with its utilitarian aspects, is the reason most > maps are made and sold. Unlike most other factual compilations, > however, maps translate this subject-matter into pictorial or > graphic form.... Since it is this pictorial or graphic form, and > not the map's subject matter, that is relevant to copyright > protection, maps must be distinguished from non-pictorial fact > compilations.... A map does not present objective reality; just as > a photograph's pictorial form is central to its nature, so a map > transforms reality into a unique pictorial form central to its > nature." > > See Mason v. Montgomery Data, 967 F.2d 135 (5th Cir. 1992). > http://openjurist.org/967/f2d/135 > > > I'm not familiar with the particular project/maps/geodata in > question, but a blanket statement that claiming copyright on a map > is "absurdity" is itself wrong. > > -Dan > If I'm not mistaken, the thread is not about the copyrightability of maps themselves, but the copyrightability of location data pertaining to digital maps, i.e. the very "non-pictoral fact compilations" mentioned in the statement you provided.
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