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PersianKitty · 04-10-2003, 10:32 PM

Compilation Copyrights: Compilation copyrights are a special breed of copyrightable work. They are defined by the Copyright Act as a work that is formed by the "collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." An example of a compilation would be a collection of the most influential plays of the Eighteenth Century. The individual plays themselves would not be subject to copyright protection, since the copyright would have expired (see the discussion in BitLaw on copyright duration for more information). However, the selection of the plays (as well as their order) involves enough original, creative expression to be protected by copyright. Therefore, the grouping of plays is protected by the copyright in the compilation even though each individual play is not protected.

A grouping of facts is also protected as a compilation, assuming the grouping contains enough original expression to merit protection. An example of a protectable grouping of facts would be the links to other web sites found in the BitLaw legal links section. Each link consists merely of factual information, namely that a particular web site can be found at a particular URL location. Thus, there is no copyright protection for the links. Although the individual links can be copied and placed unto another web site, if the entire list (or a substantial portion) of the list were copied, the copyright in the compilation would be infringed. The creative, original expression that is being protected is the sorting, selecting, and grouping of all the legal oriented web sites into the ordered legal list found on these pages.

The white pages telephone directory is an example of an unprotected grouping of facts. The individual facts (name, address, and telephone number) are not protectable under the copyright law. In addition, the compilation in this case consisted solely of gathering all available telephone numbers in a particular area and sorting them alphabetically. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that this minimal level of selecting and arrangement does not involve enough originality to be protected by copyright.

04-10-2003, 10:32 PM
PersianKitty Meow Media Inc. Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: In the valley of the sun, cactus, tacos, tequila, and nod Posts: 7,785	Compilation Copyrights: Compilation copyrights are a special breed of copyrightable work. They are defined by the Copyright Act as a work that is formed by the "collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." An example of a compilation would be a collection of the most influential plays of the Eighteenth Century. The individual plays themselves would not be subject to copyright protection, since the copyright would have expired (see the discussion in BitLaw on copyright duration for more information). However, the selection of the plays (as well as their order) involves enough original, creative expression to be protected by copyright. Therefore, the grouping of plays is protected by the copyright in the compilation even though each individual play is not protected. A grouping of facts is also protected as a compilation, assuming the grouping contains enough original expression to merit protection. An example of a protectable grouping of facts would be the links to other web sites found in the BitLaw legal links section. Each link consists merely of factual information, namely that a particular web site can be found at a particular URL location. Thus, there is no copyright protection for the links. Although the individual links can be copied and placed unto another web site, if the entire list (or a substantial portion) of the list were copied, the copyright in the compilation would be infringed. The creative, original expression that is being protected is the sorting, selecting, and grouping of all the legal oriented web sites into the ordered legal list found on these pages. The white pages telephone directory is an example of an unprotected grouping of facts. The individual facts (name, address, and telephone number) are not protectable under the copyright law. In addition, the compilation in this case consisted solely of gathering all available telephone numbers in a particular area and sorting them alphabetically. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that this minimal level of selecting and arrangement does not involve enough originality to be protected by copyright. __________________ Wondering what webmaster programs PK uses? Check them out here!