Kevin Kenny writes: > Other localities see GIS as a profit center. In New York, at least, this > is perfectly lawful. The Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit said so. > (There's a circuit split on the issue, if memory serves.) > > https://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news/court-rules-copyright-maps-does-not-offend-open-records-law
You cannot copyright a fact about the world in the United States. You can copyright creative choices that you've made in the arrangement or presentation of the facts, but you cannot copyright the fact itself. You can copyright commentary about the facts, but you cannot copyright the fact itself. If an object in the world is red, you can call it ugly and claim a copyright on that, but you cannot claim a copyright in its redness. You can copyright a creative subset of facts, but you cannot copyright the totality of facts. New York courts are free to rule any way they want, but copyright doesn't allow you to own facts. This is well-adjudicated in higher courts. If you could claim a copyright on facts, you could control people's speech, and the First Amendment does not allow that. The freedom of factual information is very strongly protected in the US. No matter what Suffolk County thinks. -- --my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com Crynwr supports open source software 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815 Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
