[Coco] Regarding Copyright and the Rainbow Magazine

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 18:11 -0500, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:
> Wait a minute.  Aren't we talking about a database that is compiled  
> by someone else, and not a direct duplication of The Rainbow's  
> index?  Can Lonnie claim that he owns the copyright to that compilation?

Who compiles a database is irrelevant. A mere list of facts cannot be
copyrighted, period, including the indexes as included in Rainbow
Magazine. A database can be protected as a trade secret, but this isn't
secret since it was printed in Rainbow.

This is why customer databases, phone books, etc. are not covered by
copyright. It isn't even a fair use issue; that's where things get
complex, but the law on copyrighting lists of facts is quite clear, you
can't do it,

Lonnie is off base; but whatever. No point in scuttling the deal because
he doesn't quite get the finer points of copyright.

Of course I am not a lawyer, so ask a real one to give you the whole
story.

-- John.