[WikiEN-l] Blank maps

Sat Mar 19 23:44:57 UTC 2005

> From: Rick <giantsrick13 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia map of British Columbia
> --- "James D. Forrester" <james at jdforrester.org>
> wrote:
>> On Friday, March 18, 2005 7:56 PM, Rick
>> <giantsrick13 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> How can a red dot on an otherwise blank map of
>> British
>>> Columbia with the county lines listed, possibly be
>>> copyrighted?
>>
>> One imagines that the contention is that the source
>> blank map is in fact
>> held in copyright.
>
> How is a blank map with the outlines of the counties
> copyrighted?  Any more than a list of counties would
> be copyrightable.
>
> RickK

Off-topic, yet, somehow, I feel, relevant:

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
  Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
  A map they could all understand.

"What`s the good of Mercator`s North Poles and Equators,
  Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
  "They are merely conventional signs!

"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
  But we`ve got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest) "that he`s bought us the best--
  A perfect and absolute blank!"

   --Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"

And the iTunes Music Store sells completely silent tracks with DRM 
protection for $0.99...

...and John Cage's publisher claims copyright protection for the work 
4'33", consisting of that quantity of silence, and claimed infringement 
and demanded a quarter of the royalties for a work by Mike Batt 
consisting of a minute of silence, see 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2133426.stm . (Batt 
insisted his silence was original and not a quotation a portion of 
Cage's work...) By the way, anyone who thinks that's ludicrous had 
better be aware that it's nothing but... and should consider joining 
the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/