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US congressional bill proposes commercial copyright monopoly on facts
By brian, Section News
Posted on Thu Feb 26th, 2004 at 11:21:37 GMT
The Free Software Foundation is urging its supporters in the United States to write their congressional representatives opposing US Bill HR 3261 before March 12. This bill would introduce extensive copyright restrictions on collections of information, essentially allowing commercial database agencies to claim ownership of facts, including medical, scientific and legal knowledge.

A similar bill was previously defeated by a coalition of academic researchers and public interest groups several years ago, but the same idea is now being pushed again. More details from the alert on the FSF homepage at FSF.org.

 

< FFII Alert: New EU Directive threatens more SCO-style attacks (1 comments) | PUBPAT calls for adversarial post grant review of all patents (2 comments) >
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US congressional bill proposes commercial copyright monopoly on facts | 3 comments (3 topical, editorial) | Post A Comment
[new] An export of ours for a change.. ? (#1)
by alex (#9) on Fri Feb 27th, 2004 at 18:25:19 GMT
(User Info) http://www.alexhudson.com/

Such laws already exist in the UK; you are able to copyright databases. This is why you see companies whose sole purpose is basically peddling data: the company who publish the Football League tables, for example, claim copyright over the league fixtures (I believe). Similar issues affect TV listings, pop music charts, etc. - you cannot republish these data without infringing copyright, even though they are essentially a collection of facts.

One wonders whether or not the original chemists who set out the periodic table would have been able to copyright it.





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[new] pneumatic (#2)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Tue Oct 19th, 2004 at 03:16:41 GMT

tadpole tapes [pneumatic][pneumatic fitting][solenoid valve][pneumatic cylinder][pneumatic components][air source treatment unit]

[ Reply to This ]


 
[new] r"r- (#3)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Wed Dec 15th, 2004 at 10:43:48 GMT

鲜 /--*i googler"r- 鲜 /--*i /-绿A`d摆

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US congressional bill proposes commercial copyright monopoly on facts | 3 comments (3 topical, editorial) | Post A Comment
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