Re: Legal status of short, perhaps uncopyrightable program (fwd)
Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Oct 2005, Lionel Elie Mamane wrote:
> >Many countries have copyright for databases; I think the whole EU has
> >it.
>
> Would a "database" as small as this file be covered? I personally doubt
> it, but I don't know how "database copyrights" are defined generally.
It's not exactly a "database copyright" but a separate right that
protects a database for which you had to do a substantial investment.
http://www.iusmentis.com/databases/crashcourse/
A few sentences are hardly the "substantial investment" that
the database directive talks about. If it were a collection
of fortunes, then maybe.
As to copyright, a single sentence is generally accepted to be
too short to qualify for copyright protection. Still, at the
same time, a haiku is likely to be protected even though it's
easy to write single sentences that are longer than haikus.
Arnoud
--
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/
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