4 ms·

If you look at the Legal Action section of your link you'll see the line "However, the case was dismissed" quite a few times. That's because data isn't copyrigh

If you look at the Legal Action section of your link you'll see the line "However, the case was dismissed" quite a few times. That's because data isn't copyrightable. Edit: As sroussey points out s/isn't copyrightable/isn't copyrightable in the USA

sroussey 4y ago
Not in the USA, but it is in the EU and elsewhere.
- whiplash451 4y ago
  How do you define the geolocation of data? If my website is hosted in EU but a company scans it from the internet in the US, how could they possibly know it is hosted in EU?
  - iudqnolq 4y ago
    Which country's laws apply and what remedies you can get if they were violated is far more complicated than geolocation of data. But very broadly speaking you would need to sue in an EU court to enforce EU law. And you could sue a US company in specific EU country's court if the company had more than some minimum level of connection to the that country. The country the data is hosted in isn't key, though it can be evidence of connection to that country.
  - z3t4 4y ago
    Where the data is stored does not matter much. Laws deal with people and companies, so it matters where you live or where your company operates. So if you live in the US you don't have to worry about EU laws unless you do buisness in EU.
    - concordDance 4y ago
      Hence why you should live on that unclaimed but of land in Africa. :D
AnthonyMouse 4y ago
The other problem with these "copyright traps" is that they do nothing to prove someone copied the legitimate parts of the data. Suppose you recreate the entire dataset from scratch. Then someone notices (e.g. using an automated comparison) that the "trap" is in the other dataset but missing from yours, and submits it to you to add. This is arguably too small an addition to be copyrighted on its own, but regardless of that, it would then be all you have to remove to get back to a clean version. And since it's erroneous data, you would want to remove it anyway.
- plasticchris 4y ago
  My favorite of these was a town founded to match the map. Pretty sure I heard an npr story on it.
jprete 4y ago
The relevant line is “information alone without a minimum of original creativity cannot be protected by copyright”. There is definitely creativity in writing code; it’s not a completely deterministic translation of even a complete specification.
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  Oh absolutely. I was speaking only about the comment I replied to.

sroussey 4y ago

Not in the USA, but it is in the EU and elsewhere.

whiplash451 4y ago
How do you define the geolocation of data? If my website is hosted in EU but a company scans it from the internet in the US, how could they possibly know it is hosted in EU?
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  Which country's laws apply and what remedies you can get if they were violated is far more complicated than geolocation of data. But very broadly speaking you would need to sue in an EU court to enforce EU law. And you could sue a US company in specific EU country's court if the company had more than some minimum level of connection to the that country. The country the data is hosted in isn't key, though it can be evidence of connection to that country.
- z3t4 4y ago
  Where the data is stored does not matter much. Laws deal with people and companies, so it matters where you live or where your company operates. So if you live in the US you don't have to worry about EU laws unless you do buisness in EU.
  - concordDance 4y ago
    Hence why you should live on that unclaimed but of land in Africa. :D

AnthonyMouse 4y ago

The other problem with these "copyright traps" is that they do nothing to prove someone copied the legitimate parts of the data. Suppose you recreate the entire dataset from scratch. Then someone notices (e.g. using an automated comparison) that the "trap" is in the other dataset but missing from yours, and submits it to you to add. This is arguably too small an addition to be copyrighted on its own, but regardless of that, it would then be all you have to remove to get back to a clean version. And since it's erroneous data, you would want to remove it anyway.

plasticchris 4y ago
My favorite of these was a town founded to match the map. Pretty sure I heard an npr story on it.

jprete 4y ago

The relevant line is “information alone without a minimum of original creativity cannot be protected by copyright”. There is definitely creativity in writing code; it’s not a completely deterministic translation of even a complete specification.

iudqnolq 4y ago
Oh absolutely. I was speaking only about the comment I replied to.