Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Canada Post Files Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowd-sourced Postal Code Database

Posted by Soulskill on from the holding-a-copyright-on-being-jerks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Canada Post has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Geolytica, which operates GeoCoder.ca, a website that provides several geocoding services including free access to a crowd-sourced, compiled database of Canadian postal codes. Canada Post argues that it is the exclusive copyright holder of all Canadian postal codes and claims that GeoCoder appropriated the database and made unauthorized reproductions. GeoCoder compiled the postal code database by using crowdsourcing techniques, without any reliance on Canada Post's database, and argues that there can be no copyright on postal codes and thus no infringement (PDF)."

4 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Eh? by paiute · · Score: 4, Funny

    In Socialist Canada, Post Office stamps you!

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    1. Re:Eh? by tibit · · Score: 3, Funny

      Going Postal by Terry Pratchett is required reading, then :)

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
  2. Re:Some conflicts with this story by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The URL having sued=1 in it is making it hard for me to stop laughing.

    --
    If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
  3. Re:2 days later by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it was only 2 days later, it sure as h*** didn't go via Canada Post.

    It's not like anyone uses them all that much any more. The month-long postal strike last summer (and the subsequent month to clear out the backlog) was the final straw for a lot of people.

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.