-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Copyright of Data] Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:09:40 -0400 From: Tsering W. Shawa <[log in to unmask]> Hi. Let me express my understanding of a copyright issue of DRG data because I was dealing with a licensing of geographic data lately. All the DRG data that are disseminated by the federal agencies through CDs/DVDs or the Internet are not copyrightable and hence are in a public domain. However, if a person or a commercial company downloaded or purchased the data and added values to the DRGs then they can claim copyright for the work. Claiming a copyright for a geographic data is very difficult task because in most cases there is a very little creative expression goes into producing the data. As we all know, geographic data is a factual information and therefore, it is not copyrightable. Almost all the company that creates geographic data understand this issue and therefore, they usually protect their work through contractual agreement by signing a license. When you sign a license you agreed to their terms. Thanks. -Wangyal Tsering Wangyal Shawa Geographic Information Systems Librarian Head, Digital Map and Geospatial Information Center Geosciences and Map Library Guyot Hall, Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 Phone: (609) 258-6804 Fax: (609) 258-4607 www.princeton.edu/~geolib/gis