> Is it really trivial to make a definition for a word, phrase > or expression? > > IMHO, it is. I think this is something we have all done when we > were younger, our teachers asking us to explain the meaning of a > word, which is why I don't find it creative at all. It is also > something you do in math and computing science very often, > defining terms that you will use.
It's also not very difficult to take photos. Yet, courts have consistently held that taking a photo requires creative effort because you have to choose the subject, angle, lighting, etcetera. That's why all your photos are protected by copyright. Well, a photo isn't a "fact", while a dictionary is a list of facts (definitins). And you cannot copyright a fact (or has this been changed recently?), like the fact that "hello is a common greeting used in the English language". What you can copyright is the presentation of said fact. So a dictionary is copyrighted, but only in the sense of how it presents its "facts". Much like you can copyright the presentation of phonebook, e.g. using some specialised layout. But you cannot copyright the name + number in that phone book, since that is considered a `fact'. Cheers. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
