Re: JPL Planetary Ephemeris DE405
On 03/20/2018 08:45 AM, Ole Streicher wrote:
> The exception used here is that facts are not copyrightable.
US copyright law has a creativity requirement. Just how much
"creativity" is required is ambiguous.
European copyright law typically has a "seat of the brow" component,
which means under European Copyright law, it would copyright. (That EU
directive doesn't throw out copyright on "sweat of the brow" grounds.)
> Positions and movement parameters of celestial bodies, presented in
their natural form (to keep the use of JPL-DE data as example) are bare
The creativity here is:
* Which bodies are included;
* How frequently are the co-ordinates listed - hourly, daily, weekly,
monthly, annually, etc.;
* What unit of measurement is used for those co-ordinates;
* What is the starting point of the listings;
* What is the ending point of the listing;
> A (US) court decision that compilations of facts requires a minimum of
> originality to be copyrighted (in that case it was a telephone book; a
> time-sorted list of planet positions is the same).
Astrolabe, Inc. v Arthur David Olson and Paul Eggert
Massachusetts District Court 1:2011cv11725
implies that a case to the contrary can be made.
> Is this enough material to claim an exception?
Nope.
Still doesn't cover those judicial domains in which "public domain" is
not a legally recognised thing.
What is needed is a specific license for the JPL Planetary Ephemeris,
that is congruent with the Debian Social Contract.
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.
jonathon
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