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by _DeadFred_ 537 days ago
'Should the resulting work be protected by copyright? I’m not entirely sure…'

This has already been settled hasn't it? Don't companies have to introduce 'flaws' in order for data sets to be 'protected'? Just compiled lists of facts can't be protected. Which is why things like election result companies having to rely on NDAs and not copyright protections to protect their services on election night.

1 comments

> This has already been settled hasn't it? Don't companies have to introduce 'flaws' in order for data sets to be 'protected'?

No, flaws are generally introduced to make it easier to detect copies; if multiple flawless reference works covering the same data (road maps of the same region, for instance) exist, each is copyrightable without flaws to the extent any would be with flaws, but you can't prove that someone else copied yours without permission if copying any of the others would give the same result. With flaws, gou can attribute the source that was copied more easily, but this isn't about being legally protected but about the practicality of enforcing that protection.