[OSM-newbies] Where is the line between "facts" and "creative works"?

[Maciej Piechotka]

Iván Sánchez Ortega <ivan at sanchezortega.es>
writes:

> El Viernes, 26 de Septiembre de 2008, Maciej Piechotka escribió:
>> I'm not sure how in Your country but I just discovered that I can
>> download the episode of series produced by public TV, which according to
>> Your theory belongs also to me, but not only I have to pay but it is
>> 14-day-valid DRM-protected file.
>
> No, no, no. Here in Spain, government-funded TV is broadcasted by RTVE, which 
> is *not* a branch of the goverment, but a state-owned public corporation. It 
> has all IP rights over the broadcasts.
>
> However, the spanish Ministry of Public Works can NOT hide ministry order 
> (e.g.) FOM/956/2008 from view, can NOT prevent me from reading it, can NOT 
> prevent me from copying it or quoting it or whatever. It can NOT assert any 
> copyrights over it.
>
>
> We have a difference between works of an agency (or state-owned corp.), and 
> published laws and rulings of any ministry. The first are subject to 
> copyright, the latter are not.
>

Well - all I advised was to check.

>
> Now comes the funny part: the Spanish National Geographic Institute (IGN) is a 
> government agency and has copyright on any maps it produces. But plans of the 
> Ministry of Public Works published as part of a ministry order don't (can't) 
> have copyright. Even if the ministry order includes maps made by the IGN. It 
> gets messy from there, and as of now we're trying to sort things out in the 
> talk-es mailing list.
>
>
> IIRC, this dates back to babylonian and roman law - in ancient times, laws 
> were hidden from public view, and a whole bunch of priests were killed as a 
> result, followed by everybody being able to review the laws. A student of any 
> law college would be able to ellaborate on this.
>

Well - IANAL but I heard the opposite - that they were put on public
view near city gates in Babylon. Well - that they were written in 'magic
writting' (i.e. any kind on writing in those times) was a different matter.

I'm also not sure where specificly was the moment when everybody could
review the law. I heard it in traditional law (which was 'in Babylonian
times' - merly written down by Hammurabni) - but since then it
complicated itself exponentially.

However - I am not a law-historiecian.

Regards
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