Re: copyrighting of numbers

On 5/15/98, Shelly Warwick <swarwick[_at_]sprynet.com> wrote:
>
> Some thoughts propted by the Lemely/Carroll exchange.
>
> It seems to me that one of the problems with database protection
> is database producers wanting to have their cake and eat it too...
> i.e. copyright protection and database protection. If a database
> was just given database protection (whatever what will turn out to
> be) and not copyright protection there would be a stronger
> argument for saying database are not writing covered by copyright
> so can be covered by something else. But if database creators
> also want copyright protection it seems harder to argue that
> databases are not writing under the meaning of the copyright
> clause and therefore entitled to some other protection.
>

An interesting idea. So on this theory, one could pass a database bill that protected *only* uncopyrightable databases, but not one that protected both copyrightable and uncopyrightable databases. Right?

Mark Lemley
<mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu> Received on Tue May 19 1998 - 15:29:04 GMT