You're exactly right (though strictly speaking, white pages are probably not copyrightable, but yellow pages may be). A phone book is maybe the worst example I

You're exactly right (though strictly speaking, white pages are probably not copyrightable, but yellow pages may be). A phone book is maybe the worst example I could have picked. You can copyright collections of facts--the white-pages exception is very small--but courts will look at whether you have put "creative" thought into how you selected entries, organized them, etc. See http://www.copyright.gov/reports/db4.pdf http://www.copyright.gov/reports/db4.pdf I've edited accordingly.