4 ms·
You can if you curate the list. Curating requires collecting and processing information, which often can be expensive.
by esjeon 4y ago
You can if you curate the list. Curating requires collecting and processing information, which often can be expensive.
- ars 4y agoNot in the US you can't. Even if you curate the list, a list of facts can never be copyrighted, only creative expression can be copyrighted. But other countries have different rules. See here for all the details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications,_Inc.,_v._Rural_Telephone_Service_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications,_Inc.,_v._R....
- whatever1 4y agoSo I can just buy a Bloomberg terminal, start broadcasting real time stock prices and collect a fee?
- ars 4y agoCertainly, unless you sign some kind of contract with Bloomberg. (Realistically they probably make you sign.) Stock prices can not be copyrighted.
- htrp 4y agoBloomberg may not allow you to redistribute those same prices and terminate your membership. But stock prices are pretty much public knowledge (no one is coming after you for licencing for quoting a price at someone)
- tomatocracy 4y agoDelayed prices for publicly traded stocks are generally available freely. Real time prices and order book though are not, not to mention prices for anything traded OTC like many bonds, swaps, etc.
- ineedasername 4y agoDifferent situation. You don't buy a terminal, you license it. The license can dictate what you're allowed to do with the data. Rebroadcast the data and you may be just fine on copyright or any other IP, but you violate the license so Bloomberg cancels it.
- esjeon 4y agoYeah, things may differ b/w countries. But the Wikipedia article you linked mentions this: > In regard to collections of facts, O'Connor wrote that copyright can apply only to the creative aspects of collection: the creative choice of what data to include or exclude, the order and style in which the information is presented, etc.—not to the information itself. So, a list of facts still can be creative and valuable to the society. INAL, but such works should be protected by copyright, or what's the point of copyright in the first place.
- ars 4y agoCopyright is not like patents. If you arrive at the same result, by a different method, then even if the result is identical, there is no copyright violation. So "the creative choice of what data to include or exclude, the order and style in which the information is presented, etc." is very weak. You can copy all the data, and then make your own choice on what to include (for example "everything I can find"), and you would not be violating the copyright. The quote you gave is for things like making artwork based on certain patterns or letters in the data. But it won't help you if your creative choice is "everything" because there is no creativity there. > So, a list of facts still can be creative and valuable to the society A list of facts is not creative, it's simply work. And yes, it might be valuable, but that's not how we decide if something is copyrightable. > or what's the point of copyright in the first place. For creativity, rather than effort.
- zarzavat 4y agoWhat that means is that if you write a list of e.g. “Top 10 tennis players in my opinion”, then you can hold copyright over that. But if you write “Top 10 tennis players by rating” then you can’t as that’s not a creative expression.
- contravariant 4y agoI think just collecting also counts. I don't think you can own rights to something other people collected and curated though. Though you can own rights to the individual components, but in this case that would be the specific price of something, which doesn't seem like it should be subject to copyright.