[R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?

[Spencer Graves]

Dear Hadley:

	  P.s.  Ben Klemens (2006) Math you can't use (Brookings) cites cases 
where people have been successfully sued for copyright infringement for 
using a theorem they independently discovered.  That's pretty scary to 
me and seems totally unreasonable, but apparently the law at least in 
the US.

	  Spencer Graves

########################
      Brian's reply seems more consistent with what I've heard than
Peter's.

      The briefest summary I know of copyright law is that expression
but not ideas can be copyrighted.  Copyright law exists to promote
useful arts, and a compilation of data is intended to be useful.
Google, led me to "http://ahds.ac.uk/copyrightfaq.htm#faq1?", says that
"data or other materials which (a) are arranged in a systematic or
methodical way, or (b) are individually accessible by electronic or
other means" can be copyrighted.

      Beyond that, there is a "fair use" doctrine, which in the US at
least allows use in many cases by educators in public institutions, but
the same use by someone not affiliated with a public school might be an
infringement.  Ten years ago, I heard from attorneys at the University
of Wisconsin that a college prof can run copies of a journal article and
distribute them to this class without worrying about copyright
infringement (provided any money collected is clearly designed to cover
costs not make a profit), but the same copies prepared by Kinko's off
campus for the same class (sold perhaps at the same price) must get
copyright permission.

      Hope this helps.
      Spencer Graves

Peter Dalgaard wrote:
> hadley wickham wrote:
>   
>> Dear all,
>>
>> This is a little bit off-topic, but I was wondering if anyone has any
>> informed opinion on whether data (ie. a dataset) is copyrightable?
>>
>> Hadley
>>   
>>     
> In general not, I believe. E.g., I didn't have to ask formal permission 
> to use data from Altman's book in mine (and I did check with my 
> publisher). I suspect that things can get murkier than that though; I 
> seem to recall stories of plagiarism cases in relation to collections of 
> mathematical tables. Beware also that there can be other legal 
> complications, including rights to first publication of new results, 
> which usually implies that you cannot publish entire datasets until 
> their publication potential has been exhausted. And of course, proper 
> attribution is required for reasons of scientific integrity and general 
> courtesy. (Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer, esp. not a US one...)
>
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