Posted By:
boxingcardmanBarry: I've heard from two collectors about the Beckett case but no one can provide specifics, let alone a ruling. Without knowing the basis for the case, and the specifics of the ruling, it is impossible to determine what the court decided. Was the publication CPU (Card Prices Update)? Anyone remember that one? Rich, anything from inside Beckett on the point?
The following comes from the copyright office: www.copyright.gov
"Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection. These include among others: ... Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)"
As I read the final item, a plain old checklist of cards isn't protected because by its nature it derives from public documents or other common sources. You can get protection for a "compilation" of checklists, which is defined as "a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." So, for example, the Standard Catalog is a copyrightable document and could not be photocopied and sold, but a specific checklist of a specific set may not be protected.