[thelist] Is This A Copyright Violation?

[Madhu Menon]

At 12:30 AM 30-08-02, Pat Meeks wrote:
>There have been recent threads where people have had their entire site
>hijacked (which is obviously a copyright violation), but I am unsure about
>were copying data tables fits in.

Copyright is on the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. If the data
was public knowledge and all they took was numbers, you probably don't have
a case.

For instance, this is probably not covered under copyright:

"Percentage of people in CountryX over 65: 20%"


While *this* probably is:

"Our research leads us to conclude that CountryX, once a booming economy of
young entrepreneurs, may no longer be the hotbed of growth it once was. 20%
of the population is over the age of 65, up from 15% ten years ago, and
with an older population, the economic growth has slowed to 7% from double
digit growth it used to have."

See the difference? The former is raw data, while the latter is expression.

Regards,

Madhu
PS: Of course, IANAL and all that. Yes, I really am ANAL. ;)

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Madhu Menon
Internet User Experience Consultant

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