[sf-lug] collections of data & copyright

[Rick Moen]

Quoting lantechie at yahoo.com (lantechie at yahoo.com):

> Excellent advice. Everyone steps into a cloud on this, and depending
> on a judge's interpretation of the law, you really don't know where
> you will end up. 

The judge's (or jury's) interpretation of _facts_, in a given copyright
case, will depend on how the evidence gets presented, but the _law_ is
actually quite consistent and pretty easy to understand, in this matter.

(Don't take my word for it; read the Copyright Act and some leading case
decisions.  I have several of the latter linked from
http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Licensing_and_Law/ .)

-- 
Cheers,                     Peter G. Neumann:  "Mars has been a tough target."
Rick Moen                   Harlan Rosenthal:  "That's because the Martians keep
rick at linuxmafia.com         shooting things down."   RISKS Digest, v. 20, #59&60