RE: [dvd-discuss] Stores claim pricelists covered by DMCA

["Richard Hartman" <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

Estimates represent the work of an appraiser.

A price list from a retailer is still merely a compilation 
of fact ... or are you suggesting that WalMart is issueing
estimates of what they are selling items for?


-- 
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roy Murphy [mailto:murphy@panix.com]
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 7:44 AM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: RE: [dvd-discuss] Stores claim pricelists covered by DMCA
> 
> 
> 'Twas brillig when Richard M. Hartman scrobe:
> >Lists of objective data are not copyrightable, IIRC.
> 
> It's a little more complicated than that. I read a case 
> involving Beanie Baby
> price gudes where it was held that the actual price estimates 
> in the guides
> were copywritable since they represented the judgement of the 
> compilators and
> not objective facts. They probably meet the minimal standards 
> for creative content
> set in Feist. In the case of these retailers, the prices are 
> created by them
> and they could probably use a similar line of argument 
> especially in a pre-publication
> context. These were prices which were in the process of being 
> published (they
> were leaks from printed circulars which had been printed but 
> not distributed
> to the public) but had not yet been published. The right of 
> first publication
> is a right which is well protected by the courts because of 
> the potential for
> irreparable harm.
> 
> Once they have been published, I think the case for 
> publishing some of them
> as a fair use is stronger, but that probably dosn't permit 
> the publication of
> the price list in its entirety.
>  
> -- 
> Roy Murphy      \ CSpice -- A mailing list for Clergy Spouses
> murphy@panix.com \  http://www.panix.com/~murphy/CSpice.html
>