Copyright of scraped data, Was ( Re: Scraped listing of Malaysian Electoral Districts needed)

[sweemeng ng]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Maulviridha Abu Bakar <mau...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 11:58 PM
Subject: Re: Scraped listing of Malaysian Electoral Districts needed
To: sinar-...@googlegroups.com

I believe election results are public info.  It is published by various media publications, including SPR themselves.

I'd say its in Public Domain.

On Jul 24, 2012 12:45 PM, "sweemeng ng" <swee...@gmail.com> wrote:

Even copy by hand by rights need attribution

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Coder KK <cod...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think those information is public, and we just use a program to copy and paste (instead of manual copy and paste) the information to a file. Then save it to a database. Because this information is one time only (we no connect to it everytime), maybe until next election. That time, maybe can provide a interface to key-in by own.

 
On Saturday, 21 July 2012 22:36:30 UTC+8, Khairil Yusof wrote:

Need an updated scraped list of Malaysian Electoral Districts for use by developers.

Anybody interested in writing one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malaysian_electoral_districts

--

Just a random living organic computer code generator

--

Just a random living organic computer code generator

[Sau Sheong Chang]

Copyright is a funny thing. The data could be well-known and publicised by many people, and is still under copyright. 

In any case, even if the database is public domain, scraping might not be 'legal'. A lot depends on the terms of use for the site you're scraping from. Many sites explicitly forbid scraping without permission. If you do so then you'll be in violation of the terms of service. 

[Yuen-Chi Lian]

Hi all,

We actually talked about copyright and legal issues on day 1 of Sinar.

I'm not sure if everyone has met a mutual understanding at that time,
but for me:

Scrape first, bring the data out, let those guys have it.
Problems? Later.

--
Yuen-Chi Lian | www.yclian.com
"I do not seek; I find." - Pablo Picasso

[lipsin]

All Malaysia Government output AFAIK also protect under copyright act.

I not sure Malaysia copyright act got any equivalent like current US copyright act.
Which most output produce by US Federal Government is in Public Domain.

Malaysia Copyright Act do have a exception for some type of "Fair Use" situation.

Quote:

Section 9-4

(4) Reproduction of the typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purposes of research, private 

study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events does not infringe the copyright subsisting by virtue of 

this section if such reproduction is compatible with fair dealing:  

 

Provided that if such reproduction is made public it is accompanied by an acknowledgement of the title of the 

work and its authorship, except where the work is incidentally included in a broadcast.

End:

SPR Website copyright message:

Quote:

Hak cipta laman web Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia dan segala maklumat, teks, imej, grafik, fail video dan susunannya serta bahan-bahannya ialah kepunyaan Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia. Tidak ada mana-mana bahagian laman web ini yang boleh diubah, disalin, disiarkan, dipamerkan, diterbitkan, dilesenkan, dipindah, dijual atau diuruskan bagi tujuan komersil dalam apa jua bentuk tanpa mendapat kebenaran terlebih dahulu daripada Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia.

End:


I think it should be ok, just copy or scrap data from above official site.
"NON COMMERCIAL" the keyword, and the Attribution.

I not sure does this action really fall under "FAIR USE".

I don't think Government or any copyright holder will really not happy if someone just reproduce a compilation of Election District. Name or any other election Data.

Unless Sinar Project is deem as a bigger threat than Malaysiakini?