Swedish Police Shoe Database May Tread On Copyright

An anonymous reader writes "The Swedish police, who have been instrumental in various raids against file-sharing sites, may have a bit of a piracy problem on their own hands. It seems they wanted to put together a database of shoe print information for matching crime scene shoe prints to particular shoe types. To do so, they used images found online, and some Swedish copyright experts have noted that this appears to violate Swedish copyright law. The police claim there's an exception for police investigations, but people (and some shoe companies) are pointing out that creating a database isn't about an investigation."

Comments

Re:Compilation of facts are protected

[John Hasler]

As far as I can tell from the article no shoe company has complained. It appears that some professor has merely speculated that the database may infringe copyrights.

I agree with the suggestion that they would get better quality data by working with the manufacturers, though.

Re:Compilation of facts are protected

[wiredlogic]

You've gotten used to the laissez faire form of copyright we all live with in the modern world where digital duplication is effortless and has no direct cost. A strict reading of copyright law indicates that any unauthorized copying outside the protections of fair use (excerpts, parody, etc.) is a violation even if you don't engage in distribution.

This is why the AHRA was put in place in the US for the narrow scope of personal music copying. Essentially, enough Congresspeople got upset about the implication that their personal mix tapes in the 80's were a violation of copyright that they created a little loophole to shut up the RIAA.