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Copyright Ruling On Publishing Calculated Results: Common Sense Breaks Out

Posted by timothy on from the but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-you dept.

bfwebster writes "During the past few years, I served as an IT expert witness in BanxCorp v. Costco et al., in which BanxCorp sued Costco and Capital One for citing (with credit) its web-published national averages for CD and money market rates in their advertising. Judge Kenneth M. Karas issued his summary judgment opinion last fall, finding that BanxCorp's published averages are 'uncopyrightable facts' due to the simple calculation involved and the lack of ongoing human judgment in what banks were involved. Here is my summary of his findings, along with a link to the actual ruling."

6 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Average by James+McGuigan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Its a rather average ruling

    1. Re:Average by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't be mean.

    2. Re:Average by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's pretty normal for slashdot.

    3. Re:Average by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Funny

      I hate it when you guys are in this mode.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  2. In light of this ruling by kjshark · · Score: 3, Funny

    I withdraw my application to copyright arithmetic.

    --
    The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to be plausible.
  3. Re:Judgment shouldn't matter by NoOneInParticular · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think you've got a fair point. In this view, I would say that many accounting reports of the last few decades should be considered creative in nature and therefore copyrightable. It seems the banks agree.