On 13.09.2014 21:25, Jeremy Baron wrote:
On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 7:23 PM, Denny Vrandečić <[email protected]> wrote:
I am not a lawyer, but if I remember correctly, copyright covers expression,
not content. Since the Wikidata data model and its representation in JSON is
rather unique, an ISBN number in a Wikidata statement seems to be novel to
Wikidata.
Would rewriting a sentence from a book and then entering that sentence in
Wikipedia violate copyright?
We have some documentation on that. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Close_paraphrasing
Regarding data import, a very useful resource is:
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/Data#Frequently_asked_questions_about_data.2C_generally
starting the first question (Which components of databases are protected
by copyright?), where it says:
"""
The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to
copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in
a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data
(such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not
subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.
"""
ISBNs are purely factual, non-creative data. Clearly, we do not copy the
schema of the other database when importing such a fact -- we have our
own schema. However:
"""
In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to
protect a maker's substantial investment in a database. In particular,
the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a
substantial portion of the contents.
"""
So you may not be allowed to copy "substantial portions" of a database,
even if purely factual (there is another question in the FAQ on what
this might mean). Note that only some jurisdictions have this concept in
the first place.
Besides these general legal rights, of course many sites also have
explicit terms of service that you must agree to explicitly before you
can get access to their services. In general, this is like a contract
between you and the service provider, and the default assumption would
be that you are bound by whatever it says. So I suppose that such terms
of service could add restrictions on top of applicable copyright (etc.)
laws. Of course, it might be the case that some of these restrictions
are void under applicable law, but that needs to be looked at on a
case-by-case basis.
Markus
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