[Fwd: [sword-devel] FACTS]

[Patrick Narkinsky]

Thus spake "Keith Ralston"> :

>> Both of these guys seem to think they get a copyright for being first to
>> put these PD works into electronic form.
> 
> I'm not sure, but I believe this works like translations of pd works.  The
> _translation_ is copyrightable.  Of course, you have to include the
> copyright notice in your work.

I don't think this is the case. There has been a lot of controversy about
this, but generally speaking derived works are only considered copyrightable
if they involve significant artistic input by the creator. Sometimes, this
is taken to ridiculous lows: for example, sheet music has the type-setting
copyrighted!  

However, the information itself cannot be copyrighted - if I were to take a
copy of Chopin sheet music and play it, the fact that I got it from
copyrighted typesetting would be irrelevant, since the information I used
was public domain.  I would thus own the rights to the performance.  In this
case, the information extracted from most modules is all in the public
domain.  The exceptions might be the strongs-numbered modules. The bottom
line is that the OLB files are generally NOT creative works, but databases
containing public domain works.

(All this silliness is a perfect example of why copyright law needs to be
completely revamped.  Intellectual "property" is a ridiculous concept.)

Patrick

--
Patrick Narkinsky - Apprentice Pastor, Hope Community Church

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons
exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." - Chesterton