Re: copyright on internet listings. The British Horseracing Board case which I mentioned in my email last week was won by the BHB on Friday. This means that William Hill were held to have infringed copyright (specifically what is known as database right) by reproducing, without permission or licence, extracts of the BHB's horseracing database and putting it on the internet.
Whether or not the decision will apply in other databases will be a matter to be decided on the facts of the case. There must be "substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents of the database."
This case, however, is the first concerning database right in the UK and is an extremely important judgement in this field. For those who want to read it (there might be one or two after all), it is available at on the Court Service website at;
http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/judgments/judg_home.htm
Laurence
Laurence W. Bebbington
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