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Re: Computer generated Almanac
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Sep 8, 21:18 -0400
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Sep 8, 21:18 -0400
George-My knowledge of copyrights is limited to US law, which of course will be vary different from UK law and "Crown Copyright". I should point out to you that here at least, copyright applies to original material. Design copyright applies to designs, as opposed to content. And simple graphic material (i.e. the layout of a bank check or timesheet) is exempted from copyright since basic graphics is considered to be a matter of public interest and need. By example, here you can copyright a typeface--but you cannot copyright the general design of the letters in the alphabet. Copyright law depends partly on statute and partly on court decisions, and I would expect that if someone were to produce a "table of calculations" that copyright could not apply to the simple tabular material, even it were very similar to another table, for the same reasons. On the other hand, photocopying the published tables would of course be a violation. Over there--but not over here. However, since federal publications in the US have a copyright belonging to the people of the United States, I suspect that *I* can copy a US publication, but it would be illegal for you to do so. Do Her Majesty's almanac tables differ from the USNO versions?