<<
Same deal for other reference works -- like the phonebook -- you can reuse the content, but you can't just copy substantial portions of the "work" because the compilation is covered under copyright law.
>>
Actually, some phonebook copyright cases have determined:
a) that "sweat of the brow" is not protected (i.e., it is the creativity, not the amount of work involved, that renders copyright)
b) and that slavishly sorting something and typing it up may not render something copyrightable
The same would likely be true of a database. If the content was not creative, but rather consisted of you typing up the names of everyone who responded to a mailing then the content is not copyrightable. The organization might be copyrightable. Depends on how creatively you store it, but the data itself is not copyrightable if it is "sweat of the brow" work, even if you busted your butt typing stuff in for weeks and years.
Lee
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