Copyright Crash Course

Copyright is meant to protect creative expression. Facts and data aren't created; they are discovered. It doesn't matter if the data was difficult to collect or if there was significant time investment or "sweat of the brow" involved in gathering the data. There has to be a modicum of creativity.

Section 102(b) of the copyright law states:

“In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work."

That means that displaying data in a figure or graph does not create a valid copyright. Only the presentation of the data in a creative format would be copyrightable. Any underlying data would be public domain and free to reuse without permission.

The context in which content is produced may also inform whether it is eligible for copyright. For example, most wildlife photography that is conducted for the purpose of scientific research is done with the intent to convey information in an objective fashion that adheres to disciplinary standards; such imagery is typically not eligible for copyright. Conversely, photography of animals produced by commercial photographers for a company like National Geographic is conducted in a creative framework and is typically eligible for copyright.

For the purposes of copyright, computer programs, or software, are treated as literary works and can be copyrighted. A computer program is defined as "a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer to bring about a certain result". While copyright does protect creative expression in software, it does not protect the functional parts of the code such as algorithms, functions, or system design.

Here are a couple of data examples to illustrate what might qualify for copyright protection. Both examples below show data about population. Figure 1 is direct expression of population data from 1950-2050. There aren't creative inputs in this figure and it's highly unlikely that it would be protected by copyright. Figure 2 also shows population data, but this example shows some creative input in addition to the presentation of the data. While the data itself from Figure 2 is in the public domain and free to reuse, it's likely the presentation of the data in the form of the infographic below is protected by copyright.

Figure 1 from https://www.siue.edu/~rblain/worldpop.html

Figure 2 from https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/infographic-global-population-trends-picture