[tz] temporary timezone database home ...

Dale Harris rodmur at gmail.com
Fri Oct 7 14:24:23 UTC 2011


It all smells rather fishy, which is why I sent a note to the EFF,
http://eff.org. Because this sounds like something up their alley.  TZ
database is a public service to the whole world.  If anyone knows
anyone that actually works at the EFF, you might point this case out
to them, I only used their general "information" mail alias.

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 4:24 AM, Clive D.W. Feather <clive at davros.org> wrote:
> Robert Elz said:
>> All I know of the lawsuit is what jhawk's message indicated - eventually
>> I assume we'll find out what trademark or patent that someone believes is
>> being infringed (a little hard to believe either, but who knows...)
>
> It's a copyright case. The claim is that the tz database copies Astrolabe's
> books and database.
>
> This isn't my jurisdiction (my legal expertise, such as it is, is in
> Scottish law), but from what friends tell me, the questions will be:
>
> (1) Is Astrolabe's material copyright? You can't copyright facts, only the
> way they are expressed. However, selecting specific facts from the mass
> that are out there, organizing them, and presenting them *can* constitute
> enough to be copyrightable. There are tests for this - the telephone
> directory isn't copyrightable in the USA because there's no authorship
> involved: it just lists every single phone number (except unlisted ones).
>
> (2) Did Olsen and Eggert *copy* the material. Unlike patents, it's
> perfectly acceptable to independently create the same material or
> independently select and organize the same facts, so long as it is
> independent.
>
> (3) If both of the above are true, is there an exemption from copyright
> such as "fair use" (which is a technical term).
>
> Note that the statements in the various files saying they are public domain
> does *not* make them so. That might protect someone who copied the files in
> good faith, but it wouldn't protect the people who put them together in the
> first place.
>
> --
> Clive D.W. Feather          | If you lie to the compiler,
> Email: clive at davros.org     | it will get its revenge.
> Web: http://www.davros.org  |   - Henry Spencer
> Mobile: +44 7973 377646
>



-- 
Dale Harris
rodmur at maybe.org
rodmur at gmail.com
/.-)




More information about the tz mailing list