Forum Moderators: not2easy
I am looking to set up a website around a collation of data on some special types of commercial chemical products. In the collation (=database) would be data (=facts, in a copyright sense?) about these products, such as manufacturer + website, product name, product density, color, uses,.....
The data would be obtained from manufacturers' websites and press releases, published brochures and appplication notes, scientific and technical literature, etc., and would be input manually (and tediously) into a database and presented on a website of my own design, layout and functionalty.
So my question: is this collation likely to infringe in any way on anyone's copyright?
I've looked through the forum but haven't seen quite the question I'm asking addressed. Does anyone have experience with such a website? I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.
Thanks
From the way you describe your plan, it sounds like research, in which you'd collect the facts and present them in completely your own way. If I'm understanding it correctly, that would not be copyright infringement - In fact, you might very well be able to claim copyright on your collation and presentation.
You'd run into problems if you lifted substantial amounts of text from other sources (because that would be copying the way they presented the facts), or used images from other sources. Except for short, attributed quotes, you'd need permission from the copyright holder for those things. But it sounds as if you've already learned that businesses generally have lots of information, and often even images, that they give permission to the press, etc., to use.
[edited by: Beagle at 11:23 pm (utc) on Nov. 29, 2006]
