[Talk-us] Fwd: State Park Boundary shp file

[Jack Burke]

You can copyright a publication of facts, too. I could publish a book called Ugly Red Things and copyright it. But nothing would stop you from publishing your own book, Red Things That I Find Ugly. 

On January 23, 2016 1:48:51 PM EST, Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:
>Kevin Kenny writes:
>> Other localities see GIS as a profit center. In New York, at least,
>this 
>> is perfectly lawful. The Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit said
>so. 
> > (There's a circuit split on the issue, if memory serves.)
> > 
>>
>https://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news/court-rules-copyright-maps-does-not-offend-open-records-law
>
>You cannot copyright a fact about the world in the United States. You
>can copyright creative choices that you've made in the arrangement or
>presentation of the facts, but you cannot copyright the fact
>itself. You can copyright commentary about the facts, but you cannot
>copyright the fact itself. If an object in the world is red, you can
>call it ugly and claim a copyright on that, but you cannot claim a
>copyright in its redness. You can copyright a creative subset of
>facts, but you cannot copyright the totality of facts.
>
>New York courts are free to rule any way they want, but copyright
>doesn't allow you to own facts. This is well-adjudicated in higher
>courts.
>
>If you could claim a copyright on facts, you could control people's
>speech, and the First Amendment does not allow that. The freedom of
>factual information is very strongly protected in the US. No matter
>what Suffolk County thinks.
>
>-- 
>--my blog is at    http://blog.russnelson.com
>Crynwr supports open source software
>521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815
>Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  |     Sheepdog       
>
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-- 
Typos courtesy of fancy auto-spell technology. 
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