Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!mcb From: mcb@ncis.tis.llnl.gov (Michael C. Berch) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: UUCP Maps Used For Commerce Message-ID: <489@ncis.tis.llnl.gov> Date: 27 Sep 89 06:39:32 GMT References: <10017@ucsd.Edu> <3833@itivax.iti.org> <1989Sep21.220406.14140@algor2.algorists.com> <328@sci34hub.UUCP> <1989Sep23.200844.22022@algor2.algorists.com> Organization: Postmodern Consulting, Pleasanton CA USA Lines: 48 Some thoughts on the issue: 1. It is a settled point of law that mailing lists and other unique assemblages of facts, bibliographic information, etc., are copyrightable as compilations. The Copyright Office has accepted such works for registration for many years and the concept has been upheld in the Federal courts. Section 101 of the Copyright Act provides that a "compilation" is "a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship". There is no requirement that the work be "creative". It would be a "literary" work, but in copyright law the term "literary" really means "verbal" (as opposed to "musical" or "audiovisual", etc.) Computer programs, for example, are "literary works". I have no doubt, based on what UUCP map coordinators and the UUCP mapping project do, that the maps would constitute a copyrightable compilation. 2. Even if a compilation copyright was claimed in the UUCP map files, this would not be sufficient to prevent use of map entries as sales leads, telemarketing info, a mailing list, etc. The so-called "bundle" of exclusive rights granted to the owners of copyrights are enumerated in Section 106 of the Act, and include (in paraphrase) the following: (1) the right to reproduce the work in copies; (2) the right to prepare derivative works; (3) the right to distribute copies of the work to the public; (4) the right to perform the work publicly; and (5) the right to display the work publicly. None of these exclusive rights (or anything in the Moral Rights codex of the Berne Convention) would prevent the holder of a copy of the work from using it to his commercial advantage, so long as none of the enumerated rights in Section 106 are infringed. 3. A choice-of-law issue may arise with respect to claims of copyright in map entries prepared outside of the United States (I believe some of the EUUG map files bore copyright notices, but haven't looked to see recently). The choice-of-law issue is complicated by the fact that the maps themselves are published in the United States (Rutgers University) but authored/compiled outside the U.S. Even if European copyright (or data privacy) laws prevented the commercial use of the map information, this would be unlikely to be given extraterritorial effect, meaning that U.S. firms would be free to use the information for commercial advantage. -- Michael C. Berch Member of the California Bar mcb@tis.llnl.gov / uunet!tis.llnl.gov!mcb (until 9/28) mcb@mica.berkeley.edu / ucbvax!mica!mcb (thereafter)