Copyrighting facts (was: Re: Can you alter the MIT license?)

[Seth David Schoen]

InfoNuovo at cs.com writes:

> There's a great deal of information about copyright and copyrightable
> subject matter available from the Library of Congress Office of Copyright.
> It is probably all on the web too.

Oh, I don't mean to suggest that there aren't standards or that they
aren't published, just that the scope of copyright isn't intuitive (or
logical, or accurately summarized by straightforward rules).  And there
are strange paradoxes and unclear dividing lines everywhere.

> I think, for this conversation, the key thing that applies, in the area of
> literary works (which software once fell into, but I haven't kept track of
> recent revisions), is that copyright applies to original expression.

Caselaw in the United States has had an interesting time trying to explain
the meaning of "expression". :-)

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org>  | And do not say, I will study when I
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/    | have leisure; for perhaps you will
     http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF)    | not have leisure.  -- Pirke Avot 2:5