Re: Life under stupid Database legislation

Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> On 6/12/98, Timothy Phillips <hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> wrote:
> >
> > H.R. 2652 appears to make it an infringement to copy even ONE sonnet
> > from ANY edition of Shakespeare which was published in the last 75
> > years.
>
> "Nothing in this chapter shall prevent the extraction or use of an
> individual item of information, or other insubstantial part of a
> collection of information, in itself. An individual item of
> information, including a work of authorship, shall not itself be
> considered a substantial part of a collection of information under
> section 1202. Nothing in this subsection shall permit the repeated or
> systematic extraction or use of individual items or insubstantial parts
> of a collection of information so as to circumvent the prohibition
> contained in section 1202."
>
> 1203(a).
>
> So, you can take one sonnet once from one edition. Then you can go to
> another edition and take another sonnet once. Then once you have gone
> to enough editions to have grabbed all of the sonnets (how many are
> there?), you can create your own sonnet database and prevent others from
> taking more than one sonnet. Someone oughta write a sonnet about this.

Yes, but what if the editor of the book of sonnets decides that the one you took is really NOT an insubstantial part... but that it is somehow the heart of the edition... then you can't take it.

Brooks Constantine
bconstan[_at_]indiana.edu
202-387-8030 Received on Tue Jun 16 1998 - 14:30:55 GMT