You're right about the 'use it or lose it', but the damages will likely be set to '0', especially in those cases where the value of the original copyrighted dat

You're right about the 'use it or lose it', but the damages will likely be set to '0', especially in those cases where the value of the original copyrighted data is minimal (which I think in this case is fairly clear). As for the question of appropriation, I don't think that that should ever happen, it would basically mean that anything is up for grabs given the right reasoning. Governments have to jump through some pretty involved hoops in order to seize your property (ok, in some countries the hoops are not that complicated and abuse is rife), for corporations to do the same thing would be a bad development. Say next year we all decide that the windows source code is something we can't live without any more so hand it over? That's not a good development, even in those cases where you could make a strong argument for it. In this particular case, there isn't even a strong argument, all it will take is a little bit of work if they should win their case and then they can keep their database and use it to light the fire after printing it out. It will have lost its value entirely after it gets re-created from original material.