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Well a common example of something that can't be copyrighted in most jurisdictions is lists of things. For example the recipe list for a chocolate cake can't be

Well a common example of something that can't be copyrighted in most jurisdictions is lists of things. For example the recipe list for a chocolate cake can't be copyrighted, but the manner it is presented in a cookbook (flavour text, images, typesetting) can. Copyright protects the expression of ideas rather than the idea itself. You can claim copyright to the film 'The Breakfast club', but you cannot make a copyright claim to 1980s teenage rite of passage themes. So if there is a very limited form in which an idea cannot be expressed (a three line for loop), then it probably falls into that category of not copyright-able. -IANAL

thephyber 9y ago
> Well a common example of something that can't be copyrighted in most jurisdictions is lists of things. Collections of things are copyrightable (in at least some jurisdictions). A recent legal case was brought recently by some sports stats website who sued scrapers. They didn't "own" the stats (any sports viewer could have built the collection independently), but they owned that specific aggregation. I imagine the same is for collections such as map data. Also IANAL