Re: copyrighting of numbers

Russell G. Cofano <russc[_at_]cofanogroup.com> wrote:
>
> A real estate broker enters into a listing agreement with a home
> seller. The seller, with broker's help, elects to sell the house
> at $200,000. Listing Broker enters the listing in the local
> multiple listing service computer database. Is the list price
> copyrighted ... ? I am an attorney for the real estate brokerage
> industry and was recently told that the answer to the question was
> "yes." Makes no sense to me, however, as I understand that one
> cannot obtain a copyright of mere facts (the list price), but rather
> the creative expression of those fact can be copyrighted. How can a
> price in the above example be creatively expressed?

Because Multiple Listing Services have often been considered proprietary by real estate brokers, many such brokers may be under the impression that individual prices and other bits of factual information may be protected by copyright. Copyright protects only the selection and arrangement of a particular collection of facts, not the individual facts themselves. Prices and like facts may be protected by means of a confidentiality agreement limiting dissemination of the information to only certain parties; and in some cases they may be considered common law trade secrets. But I can't imagine how "$200,000" could be protected by copyright.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Mon Apr 27 1998 - 20:29:42 GMT