Re: [R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
This is an area where US law differs importantly from other countries. US law protects compilations of facts only to the extent that the selection of the facts is creative expression (and does not protect the facts themselves). Many other jurisdictions (eg European Union) also offer protection based on the effort need to compile the facts regardless of any creativity. A 1997 US Supreme Court decision (in a case about telephone directories) ruled that the 'sweat of the brow' rationale for copyright was inconsistent with the intellectual property clause of the US Constitution. So, in the US, it depends on the data and their source. Publishers that I have talked to tend to claim that data are definitely copyrightable, but since they tend to own the copyrights one might do well to recall the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies. -thomas Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Washington, Seattle On Sat, 12 May 2007, 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 __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Washington, Seattle __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
[R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
A relevant book on this important (and evolving) topic is Math You Can't Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software by Ben Klemens (2006) __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
These links from the US copyright office seem relevant: Copyright Registration for Automated Databases http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ65.html and Furthermore, copyright protection does not extend to works consisting entirely of information that is common property containing no original authorship, for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, schedules of sporting events, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources. from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ32.html and also Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include — (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. from http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102 and at Stanford: A fact or a theory--for example, the fact that a comet will pass by the Earth in 2027 --is not protected by copyright. If a scientist discovered this fact, anyone would be free to use it without asking for permission from the scientist. Similarly, if someone creates a theory that the comet can be destroyed by a nuclear device, anyone could use that theory to create a book or movie. However, the unique manner in which a fact is expressed may be protected. Therefore, if a filmmaker created a movie about destroying a comet with a nuclear device, the specific way he presented the ideas in the movie would be protected by copyright. EXAMPLE: Neil Young wrote a song, Ohio, about the shooting of four college students during the Vietnam War. You are free to use the facts surrounding the shooting but you may not copy Mr. Young's unique expression of these facts without his permission. In some cases, you are not free to copy a collection of facts because the collection of facts may be protectible as a compilation (see Section B5). For more information on how copyright applies to facts, refer to Chapter 2, Section F3. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/8-a.html#4 Hadley On 5/13/07, hadley wickham [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Brian, Peter, Spencer, Thanks for your comments, which have cleared things up a little for me. The thing I find most confusing about copyright is that it is emergent, not atomic - ie. if you split a copyrighted work into small enough pieces (eg. letters, pixels) those pieces are no longer copyrightable. It is the combination of those small pieces into a specific form that is important, and the definition of derivative works seems to help define what rearrangement of those pieces is still covered under copyright. The specific case that I am interested in creating new data sets from publically available data (itself stored in copyrightable works) - in my case to produce interesting data sets to use in class. For example, each individual page on ebay is copyrightable, but if I extract the price, name and category from (say) 200 pages, does the copyright of that dataset belong to ebay? I'm quite comfortable using that data personally, or for a class, but if I want to publish it (ie. in jse) do I need to get permission? Similarly, if I take a few mp3's and calculate some summary statistics for them, would that constitute a derivative work? Hadley __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
On Sat, 12 May 2007, hadley wickham wrote: 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? Yes, informed (we discussed this with legally qualified authorities when MASS was first published with software/datasets). You may note that statistical tables can be copyrighted, and have been, and some of those copyrights have been defended. Generally you cannot coypright numbers (like words), but you can copyright their layout if there is seen to be added intellectual content. MASS/inst/LICENCE says Our understanding is that the dataset files MASS/data/*.rda are not copyright. Files spatial/data/*.dat were generated or digitized by B. D. Ripley: no copyright is asserted. All other files are copyright (C) 1994-2002 W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley. Those parts which were distributed with the first edition are also copyright (C) 1994 Springer-Verlag New York Inc, with all rights assigned to W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley. (Springer registered the rights with the US coypright authorities, although it is moot if _they_ had any intellectual content to assert.) -- Brian D. Ripley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UKFax: +44 1865 272595 __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
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...) __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] [OT] Is data copyrightable?
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...) __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
