Re: copyrighting of numbers

Jeremy G. Byrne <jeremy[_at_]iz.org> wrote:
>
> On 7/05/98, Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucls.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On 5/6/98, JQ Johnson <jqj[_at_]darkwing.uoregon.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > the creation of a physical (computerized) database requires quite
> > > a number of creative decisions even after the complete set of
> > > raw data has been identified
> >
> > You, though, are arguing that the database structure (as if it were a
> > program) is copyrightable. It would seem to me, if one puts aside the
> > resulting compilation for a moment, that the only way *that* would be
> > copyrightable is if you argue that there are literary components to
> > the database structure and that those components, just like program
> > instructions, are copyrightable.
>
> As a professional database analyst/programmer with nearly a decade's
> experience, I'd have to concur with JQ on the "creativity" involved in
> the planning, development and optimisation of anything beyond a trivial
> database, and note that this is generally considered "obvious" within
> the IT industry.

I agree entirely. Several applications are trivial once the best data structure has been extracted from the untidy world around it. It can be that extraction which takes most skill. I have thought that this has not been properly recognised or understood by lawyers and courts.

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David Swarbrick, Solicitor. Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
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