Thursday, January 26, 2006

Are GPS coordinates copyrightable? -

I am trying to find the copyright status of GPS coordinates. Are GPS coordinates facts, hence not copyrightable? If I was to copy a whole bunch of GPS coordinates from a hiking book, for example, to use in my own commercial website, is that copyright infringement? If you know the answer to this question I would really appreciate it. Also, if you could provide legal texts to support your argument, I would appreciate it even more!Thank you!!!

GPS coordinates are not protected by copyright.

while the previous answers are correct in that GPS coordinates, in and of themselves, can not be copyrighted, I think you find that a particualr compilation of them will be very much copyrightable. Take English words, for example. Not one of the words in Steven King s new novel can be copyrighted by itself (unless he coins a new word), but his particular compilation of words into a novel will be vey well copyrighted.

GPS coordinates ARE NOT copyrighted materials. Those coordinates have been around for HUNDREDS of years. No one owns a reference to a location.

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