[clausok]

I've been waiting 15 years for litigation in this arena. If prices, like player statistics from an NHL game, are historical facts which can not be copyrighted, why don't we have better and cheaper public market data API's by now? How have the exchanges been able to maintain a stranglehold over distribution of historical facts?

[lokar]

Their regulator(s) support them selling it. And they can easily cut anyone off for re-distributing it (in addition to any legal remedy they may attempt).

[gruez]

> And they can easily cut anyone off for re-distributing it (in addition to any legal remedy they may attempt).

AFAIK that's what grsecurity does. They distribute linux patches, which aren't copyrightable because they're GPL. To prevent anyone from distributing their patches openly (and putting them out of business), they have a clause in their contracts saying that if you distribute their patches, they'll terminate your subscription.