I didn't know you were a copyright lawyer.
On 4/2/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman(a)spamcop.net> wrote:
On Mon, 2 Apr 2007 10:48:30 -0700, "Matthew
Brown" <morven(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
In this case, the list of cars in the show was
assembled from a
primary source using simple criteria: any car shown was listed.
Um, no. This is a classic case of "hard cases make bad law". If the
list is taken to have been presented as part of the content of the
show, then it is almost certainly a copyright violation (I have
contacted the rights holders to check, of course). If, on the other
hand, we argue that it is not a copyright violation because the list
itself is not presented as part of the show's content, then the list
in the article is a novel synthesis from original materials.
It rather depends on whether you count a list which identifies the
vehicles by photograph rather than text label, as being equivalent to
the same list translated into text labels,
Each week Clarkson and the Hamster stand up and invite the audience to
help them decide whether the Ford Blah is cool or not; the decision
made, it goes on the wall.
The Top Gear criterion of "coolness" has been the basis of derivative
works published by the BBC (e.g. Hammond's "What Not To Drive"), but
the only way to get the list as text is either to watch every show and
write them down, or to recognise the pictures. Of course, I believe
it doesn't actually matter which you do, because reproducing the list
*in its entirety* is to a very /very/ high degree of probability a
violation of the BBC's copyright.
It's further complicated by the fact that the BBC don't appear to
consider it important enough to put on their website. So the one
authoritative single source that might exist for the list as text, but
which would at the same time unambiguously make it copyright, does not
exist.
I also apply the simple man's copyright test: if something you produce
is based entirely on copying from another source which asserts
copyright, it's probably copyright violation. Needless to say, Top
Gear has a copyright statement at the end of every broadcast.
Guy (JzG)
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG
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