You can copyright a publication of facts, too. I could publish a book called Ugly Red Things and copyright it. But nothing would stop you from publishing your own book, Red Things That I Find Ugly.
On January 23, 2016 1:48:51 PM EST, Russ Nelson <nel...@crynwr.com> wrote: >Kevin Kenny writes: >> Other localities see GIS as a profit center. In New York, at least, >this >> is perfectly lawful. The Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit said >so. > > (There's a circuit split on the issue, if memory serves.) > > >> >https://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news/court-rules-copyright-maps-does-not-offend-open-records-law > >You cannot copyright a fact about the world in the United States. You >can copyright creative choices that you've made in the arrangement or >presentation of the facts, but you cannot copyright the fact >itself. You can copyright commentary about the facts, but you cannot >copyright the fact itself. If an object in the world is red, you can >call it ugly and claim a copyright on that, but you cannot claim a >copyright in its redness. You can copyright a creative subset of >facts, but you cannot copyright the totality of facts. > >New York courts are free to rule any way they want, but copyright >doesn't allow you to own facts. This is well-adjudicated in higher >courts. > >If you could claim a copyright on facts, you could control people's >speech, and the First Amendment does not allow that. The freedom of >factual information is very strongly protected in the US. No matter >what Suffolk County thinks. > >-- >--my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com >Crynwr supports open source software >521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815 >Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog > >_______________________________________________ >Talk-us mailing list >Talk-us@openstreetmap.org >https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us -- Typos courtesy of fancy auto-spell technology.
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