British case

Professor Oppenheim responded to my query.
>
>It is not clear what you mean by "data is not copyrightable". Do you mean
>that facts are not copyrightable?

Sorry for the impecise question. I was told that a recent case held that data was not copyrightable. This occured in the course of a discussion regarding the ability of the British Meteorlogical Office to claim copyright in the compilation of weather data that it collects hourly and distributes in real time, without charge or limitation, to other meterological offices throughout the world. This reciprocal exchange of data amongst national meteorlogical offices takes place under the umbrella of the World Meteorlogical Organization. Asserting copyright could enable the UK Met Office to prevent foreign commercial organizations from accessing the UK data through their national office, and selling enhanced products derived from the UK data to television stations and newspapers in Europe in competition with the British Office.

Perhaps the question should have referred to "compilations of data."

Jim Brennan
<jbrennan[_at_]hq.noaa.gov> Received on Fri Mar 31 1995 - 21:51:13 GMT