Posted by
Russell McOrmond-2 on
Mar 26, 2007; 3:25pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/MPs-by-postal-code-tp959p980.html
Robin Millette wrote:
> I tend to think this is ok. The data isn't copyright itself, only
> it's disposition and grouping and layout, and we're not using that.
Please be careful here. If you take source material that is under
copyright, and manipulate it such that it is no longer the same work
(Remix, etc), this doesn't mean that the new work is no longer a
copyright infringement.
In Canada, "original" databases are protected under copyright, but
the Federal Court of Appeal has held that "non-original" databases are
not protected. There was discussion as part of the Section 92 report
and the 2001 consultation about whether non-original databases should
also receive the copyright monopoly.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/rp00872e.html#A1_4 Database protection was not a big part of the process, given larger
issues such as legal protection for TPMs and other digital issues were
seen as more critical.
The lines aren't always black-and-white, although I think in this case
if there was a court case that we would easily loose as the cache and
the use of the screen scraping isn't even a remixing but a simple use of
the Crown Copyright database of postal-code to MPs. IANAL, TINLA, but I
want people to be very careful and not blindly believe that screen
scraping and remixing avoids any copyright questions.
> I would be comfortable using this new database and sharing it with
> anyone, I would suggest making it public domain for now even and take
> some more time to come up with a licence to use.
Dedicating things to the public domain will also make it easier to win
in the "court of public opinion", where applying a strong license (such
as a CopyLeft/ShareAlike) could backfire.
--
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <
http://www.flora.ca/>
Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/ "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
portable media player from my cold dead hands!"