Dan_Jacobson@att.com (05/17/91)
After one thumbs past the newly "liberated" white pages of my Illinois Bell Naperville Ill. phone book, one encounters a fairly bland street map of Naperville, with copyright notices at the bottom of each page. Would the U.S. Supreme Court would also see this map as a mere collection of facts too?
trebor@uunet.uu.net> (05/20/91)
Dan_Jacobson@att.com writes: > After one thumbs past the newly "liberated" white pages of my Illinois > Bell Naperville Ill. phone book, one encounters a fairly bland street > map of Naperville, with copyright notices at the bottom of each page. > Would the U.S. Supreme Court would also see this map as a mere > collection of facts too? You are confusing facts with expression. Copyright law covers the expression of ideas (or facts, or whatever), not the underlying ideas themselves. Thus, that *particular* map (expression) can be copyrighted, but the idea behind it (the configuration of streets) cannot. Personally, I think the SC ruling is a flawed one. I certainly believe that it is inequitable. TPC spent time and money to generate the phone number listings in the book, and rival white pages companies should pony up if they want to use them -- or generate them a different way. TANSTAAFL! Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@foretune.co.jp