<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Bruce Bannerman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au">B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"><br>
There was a study several years ago that from memory found that a database could potentially be subject to copyright. I recall that they were particularly looking at UK Ordnance Survey data.<br></span></font></div></blockquote>
<div><br></div><div>I'm not disagreeing, and in Australia & NZ datasets have traditionally been seen as being covered by copyright. However, the Australian Federal Court recently ruled that the content of the Yellow & White pages didn't have copyright:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.copyright.org.au/news/news_items/cases-news/2010-cases/federal-court-finds-white-and-yellow-pages-not-subject-to-copyright/">http://www.copyright.org.au/news/news_items/cases-news/2010-cases/federal-court-finds-white-and-yellow-pages-not-subject-to-copyright/</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>So all is not clear...</div><div><br></div><div>Needless to say, if there's no Copyright, then Creative Commons licenses have no meaning at all. ODbL works in some aspects of contract law to attempt to resolve this, but that creates its own issues.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt">Part of the problem is that we are working in a global community with differing laws on IP in respective countries (and hence differing understanding of the issues).<br>
</span></font></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>And in common-law countries, differing interpretations on the laws forming legal precedents over time...</div><div><br></div><div>Rob :)</div><div><br></div></div>