🚀 go-pugleaf

I haven't read all of this thread, but it appears that some people are
thinking of selling their databases, and other are concerned over the
copyright status of the references or biblliographies they produce.

While I am most definitely not a lawyer, nor am I an expert, I do believe
that in the US it is not possible to copyright the contents of such data-
bases.  (In Europe the situation is quite diferent.)  You can copyright
the presentation of the data in a database but not the information
content.  So I don't think you would need to negogiate anything in order
to use them.  This rule applies to most complations of data.  I remember
one court case where somebody got hold of the phone book for a small city,
copied the information into their own book, and sold it in competition
with the original directory (naturally the second book was far cheaper.)
The courts held that this was not an infringment of the copyright.

So, if you get hold of an electronic database, you can buy a copy, copy
the records into your own database (using your own format), and sell it!
No doubt databases will not be sold, but licenced for the particular use
of producing bibliographies only, and worded in strict legaleze to prevent
such wholesale copying.

Does anybody know for sure what the law is in the US?  And what about
elsewhere?

Wayne Pollock (The MAD Scientist)
Internet:       pollock@eggo.csee.usf.edu