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

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)."

Comments

Eh?

[paiute]

In Socialist Canada, Post Office stamps you!

Right Idea, Wrong Argument

[Anonymous Coward]

As much as I think the idea of copyrighting post codes is stupid, surely the source of the data doesn't matter. That is like taking a picture, looking at each pixel, manually selecting a similar color pixel and creating a new image, then claiming that you own copyright on this new image. Postcodes should be as uncopyrightable as information about the boundary between counties.

Some conflicts with this story

[dmomo]

My first reaction was: It's a Dangerous path, once "facts" can become copyrighted. Then I (gasp) RTFA.

There are two claims made by the article:

1) Canada Post argues that it is the exclusive copyright holder of all Canadian postal codes
If the issue is #1, then this is truly asinine, in my opinion. I am no scholar of copyright law, especially how it is applied in Canada. This claim may or may not be true. However, I could find no evidence the the Canada Post made such a claim. I may not have searched through the links provided with enough thoroughness. But, could it be that the author of the article either assumed it, or simply made it up? Does anyone have support for this claim, which to me seems absurd?

2) Canada Post says GeoCoder appropriated the database and made unauthorized reproductions.
If the issue is #2 They claim that there were "unauthorized reproductions" of their database made. This could be a legitimate copyright infringement. Again. I see no evidence that Canada Post makes this claim either.

In fact, I see no mention of "copyright" other than in the article. There is just this post:
http://geocoder.ca/?sued=1 ... which states that Canada Post is suing for lost revenue.

Now, these claims may in fact be true, and I don't necessarily doubt them. I would however like to see solid links to sources, for instance the text of the lawsuit. It's difficult to figure out what is fact and what is speculation.

Re:Some conflicts with this story

[MacGyver2210]

If you read the Statement of Defence on that page, in section 29 they pretty clearly outline why this is nonsense:

29. The Plaintiff's claim to copyright in the CPC Database would lead to absurd results. Individual Canadians and businesses regularly and frequently collect and use postal codes in address books, mailing lists, customer lists, supplier lists, and an infinite variety of lists. If the Plaintiff's assertion of
copyright in the CPC Database were well founded, all of these collections of addresses and the postal codes therein would reproduce parts of the CPC Database and so would infringe copyright. The result would be copyright infringement on a massive, near-universal scale, since none of these uses are
licensed. Entire fields of economic activity – directory publishers, database distributors, online lookup tools, even telephone directories such as the Yellow Pages – would overnight be relegated to the status of infringers.

Also, it is of note that GeoCoder is saying even the Canada Post corp doesn't own the copyright, and that the database cannot be copyrighted as a collection of facts:

26. Even though Geolytica did not copy the CPC Database, Canada Post also does not own copyright in the CPC Database as a compilation. Geolytica denies the Plaintiff's claim to the contrary at paragraph 5 of the Statement of Claim.
27. Geolytica pleads that the CPC Database is itself a fact. The CPC Database can only substantially take on one form, wherein this compilation of facts remains a non-copyrightable fact.
28. Further, the selection and arrangement of data into the CPC Database involves no skill and judgment. Although there may have been an exertion of labour to establish a postal code designation system, Canada Post Corporation did not, and does not, exert a non-trivial amount of skill and judgment to create and maintain the CPC Database. The CPC Database simply collects “all the postal codes”. This is a “collection”, not a “selection” or “arrangement”. Nor does the Canada Post Corporation exhibit skill or judgement in collecting “all the postal codes”.

postal codes should be public domain

[morethanapapercert]

Postal codes were created by Canada Post for its own convenience in sorting and delivering mail. On that level, the data belongs to Canada Post and only they can change it. However; Canada Post is a crown corporation, all the data it generates is done using a mixture of public funds and postage revenues. Just as with scientific research results, I argue that the use of public funds mandates that the resulting data be freely accessible to anyone. Canada Post can not stop anyone from publishing this data, even for profit. I note that in my province, and presumably all the others, there are phone books other than the one published by Bell. These local phone directories include postal codes as part of the address listings as a vale-add to differentiate themselves from the more well known Bell phone directories.

Canada Post hasn't sought to stop these directories from including the postal codes, so I don't believe it should seek to stop an online publication either.

In other respects, Canada Post has shown itself to be a fairly forward thinker for a government operation. To me, the fact that Geolytica has created their website is proof that there is a market opportunity there that Canada Post has overlooked. Canada Post could; and I dare say should, simply out compete Geolytica by creating a more comprehensive and easier to use web page of its own. Canada Post might not be able to compete with the US listings Geolytica also has, but I think there is much room for improvement on the look and feel of the web page itself. (How many run of the mill users even know the difference between HTML, XML and JSON let alone *care*? geocoder.ca uses google maps, but it doesn't look as if they took any design ideas from Google)

Re:2 days later

[Barbara, not Barbie]

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.

Re:2 days later

[Mashiki]

I kinda find it funny that your post is marked funny, but damn if that isn't the truth. I've switched to DHL for my regular mail if it has to be sent. I can send a letter from ontario to northern alberta or the territories for under $2. And it'll get there within 3-5 days. The last time I sent a letter via canada post it took nearly a month. Including the week it sat in edmonton.

Re:Common law countries are split about this

[mrbester]

There is a good reason for that: both Canada and Australia are Commonwealth countries, i.e. they used to be part of the British Empire. Britain's telephone system was owned by the General Post Office (a Government Agency - deliberate capitalisation) who issued numbers. These were Crown Copyright (same as Ordnance Survey maps still are) and you had to pay to use the base data. The same applies to this day for post codes in the UK. Thus the system of telephone numbers and postal addresses being defined and maintained by government agencies and protected by copyright naturally was used in the colonies.