First, you may find the following link instructive. However, it refers
mainly to the USA situation which is a bit different to Europe.
http://www.templetons.com/brad//copymyths.html
Second, There are EC directives which harmonize copyright across Europe.
They are minimum standards, of course, and national law may be more
stringent.
Third, the Berne convention enforces copyright in all signatory nations
(the vast majority).
Fourth, the UK position on what is copyright is a bit more stringent than
most countries. In most countries, you are required to have put some
intellectual effort into producing the material - exactly what is governed
by case law. In the UK, you only need to show that some effort - even
mechanical compilation - has gone into it. Lawyers call this the "sweat of
the brow" test. Thus, a list of telephone numbers compiled by going through
the directory and writing down every entry where the house number is 12 is
copyright in the UK, but not in most other places.
Fifth, In the UK the OS claims (and I understand defends) a copyright on
the National Grid. Any map carrying National Grid lines therefore breaches
this copyright. There appears to be some confusion as to what is copyright
in this case - mathematical formulae are not copyright.
Finally, I AM NOT AN EXPERT and am simply recalling a seminar run by the
AGI some years ago. It do, very clearly, recall that the presenter pointed
out that in the case of a breach of copyright, the only likely winners were
the lawyers!
It may be that your application comes under "fair use" of the material,
being a tiny abstract from a much larger work. However, if you think there
is any likelihood of being in breach of copyright and being found out,
CONSULT A SOLICITOR.
Good luck
Paul Cooper
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|