If I’m wrong, please point it out…

Please see Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service (1991).

In part III of that opinion, Justice O’Connor makes clear that ?the names, towns, and telephone numbers of 1,309 of Rural’s subscribers? are ?uncopyrightable facts?.

III

There is no doubt that Feist took from the white pages of Rural’s directory a substantial amount of factual information. At a minimum, Feist copied the names, towns, and telephone numbers of 1,309 of Rural’s subscribers.?.?.?.

The question that remains is whether Rural selected, coordinated, or arranged these uncopyrightable facts in an original way.?.??.

We conclude that the names, towns, and telephone numbers copied by Feist were not original to Rural and therefore were not protected by the copyright in Rural’s combined white and yellow pages directory.?.?.?.

In the copyright context, the word ?fact? may approach something of a term-of-art. I hesitate to say that it does, but telephone numbers, in particular, are invented ?facts?. Invented by the telephone company: Rural Telephone Company.

Time zones…

Note that Astrolabe v Olson et al is in the District of Massachusetts. A case from that district is Skinder-Strauss v Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (D.Mass., 1995), where the court opined that, in the context of copyright, information about time zones was so-called ?common property.?

.?.?. information that is so-called “common property” and does not vary with the creativity of the compiler. For example, a standard calendar, a list of important holidays, a map of Massachusetts, a national map including time zones, and a date calculation chart are all common forms of conveying information and/or are “ideas” that cannot be considered separately from their expression. After all, there are only a very limited number of ways that an author can render a calendar, date calculation chart, or list of holidays. Cf. Harper House, 889 F.2d at 204, 204 n. 5 (holding that common property such as area code/time zone maps and standard calendars contained in daily organizer are not copyrightable); 37 C.F.R. ? 202.1(d) (1995) (excluding from copyright “[w]orks consisting entirely of information that is common property containing no original authorship, such as, for example: Standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, schedules of sporting events, and lists or tables taken from public documents and other common sources”).

Emphasis on ?a national map including time zones?.