mcb@ncis.tis.llnl.gov (Michael C. Berch) (08/04/89)
I have been reading the discussion of copyrighted UUCP map files with growing amusement, mostly at those who manifest gross misunderstanding of both the purpose and implementation of copyright law but feel compelled to post on the subject nonetheless. Under U.S. copyright law, and the international copyright agreements that the U.S. is a member of, including the Berne Convention (as of this last Spring), the copyright holder has a number (sometimes called a "bundle") of so-called "exclusive rights". These rights have been discussed here and elsewhere at great length. Emphatically not present in this "bundle", however, is the right to control the use of information that people may learn from copies of the copyrighted work. In other words, under U.S. law, copyrighting a UUCP map file in no way acts as bar to the extraction and use of parts of the information contained in the file, whether for compiling a sales lead mailing list, or to gather statistics on how many site admins are named "Bruce", or whatever. This has nothing at all to do with the "fair use" limitation on exclusive rights, or any sort of implied license, or anything of the sort. It is simply that copyright law protects unique expressions of ideas, NOT information. My sketchy knowledge of French copyright law is sufficient to lead me to believe that the same is fundamentally true in France (where the copyrighted map file issue first arose). I admit to knowing nothing whatever about Greek law on the subject, however. Anyone who can shed some light on either country's copyright law would be most welcome to follow up. As for the map files themselves, insofar as they are part of the UUCP map distribution, and the distribution center is situated in the United States, I believe that U.S. law would be applied to any infringement proceeding in the U.S. arising out of the map files, and would likely be applied in infringement proceedings in other countries whose choice-of-laws jurisprudence resembles the United States'. Followups to misc.legal. -- Michael C. Berch Member of the California Bar mcb@tis.llnl.gov / uunet!tis.llnl.gov!mcb