WA isn't capable of doing *anything* without input. Yet, it claims copyright over its response, and WA appears to be setting up rules/guidelines under which people will need to attribute WA in order to follow these copyright guidelines.
It's interesting the parallels between this and the attempts of many mainstream media outlets (especially AP) to restrict access to content that AP makes freely available over the web, including via RSS.
It's also worth noting that the threat of a lawsuit can often act as a deterrent, even if the actual lawsuit is unwinnable. The process of getting tied up in court can cripple smaller organizations being sued by larger ones -- one can look at the record of Tobacco Companies suing County Public Health departments, or, for an example closer to education, at the BB vs D2L debacle.
So, WA is a notable entry into the arena, both for the service it offers and for the way it attempts to carve it's niche in the market. In short, these terms feel like an IP land grab.
Cheers,
Bill
----- Original Message ----
From: Jason Johnson <jasonpj@yahoo.com>
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 9:21:40 AM
Subject: Re: Copyright and Wolfram Alpha, Google
Academically they should provide credit (which they generally do) but then it goes quickly into the murky waters of copyrighting derivative works and fair use. Regardless of credit, copyright refers to legal ownership. They would argue that you don't own it because their analysis is transformative. They would still be happy to give you credit and a bill for the license to use their analysis of your data :-)
I think the most important part of the Groklaw analysis was :
"And the meaning of all this? No. Not 42. It means Wolfram|Alpha will never replace Google. "
_J ____________________________
Jason at jasonpj@yahoo.com
________________________________
From: Bill Ivey <bivey01370@gmail.com>
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 10:12:58 AM
Subject: Re: Copyright and Wolfram Alpha, Google
Hi!
So in your example, WA gets the copyright on the correlation even though I'm
the one who thought up the terms being correlated, on the grounds their
machine did the research at that point? Shouldn't we at a minimum share
credit for the work?
Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM, JPDS Tech <techpurchases@jpds.org> wrote:
> I read the W/A statement differently. I don't think they intend to enforce
> copyright on common knowledge questions. They appear to be making
> essentially an academic-type claim. They have taken existing facts and
> compiled them together in ways that may or may not have ever existed
> before.
> This is similar to a doctoral thesis which refers to data collected
> originally by other people/organizations (eg: Census Bureau) but analyzes
> it
> in new ways. That thesis IS copyrightable. The copyright isn't on the
> original data but on the product of analysis and synthesis of the data.
>
> Scenario: You ask W/A to compare two mildly obscure data points from two
> atypical groups (eg televisions per capita and infant mortality rates for
> Bosnia & Herzegovina and Brazil). W/A is stating that it is possible that
> nobody has ever put that particular combination of data together before.
> Thus, it is appropriate to cite W/A and not just the underlying sources of
> their chart. That parallels the way you would cite a thesis paper which
> synthesized these data points.
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