Question for Mr. Binder

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob Lemke

As Tim Wilson says in his title track, I could be wrong, but it is my recollection that a more recent court case essentially "overturned" Beckett's win over CPU. I'm unsure of the jurisdiction, but ATT (or whomever at the time published the "Yellow Pages,") sued a competitior who lifted the listings for a competing "business phone directory." The court ruled that data (name, addresses, phone numbers) or for that matter, card numbers, player names, variations, was not copyright-able, only the form in which it is presented. Further, if the form is the only logical arrangement, i.e. card number, than player name, then columns of pricings, than even the form is not protected. When I was involved at SCD/SCBC we had our attorney (Chet Krause's nephew-in-law) look into this type of possible copyright infringement and he said we didn't have a case.