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Adding value to a purchased list and reselling the information (Intellectual Property)

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:13:00 GMT

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota
Hello good people.
I have a specific question regarding intellectual property.
Is this scenario legal? What, if any, are the potential repercussions?
1.Buy a list of 1000 company names
2.Go onto the internet and research that company finding information such as phone number, members of senior management, etc. for those 1000 companies.
3.Create a subscription database of the 1000 records with the information found on the internet?
Thanks for the help.

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  • Comments
  • Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:26:00 GMT(1)
  • How is the original intellectual property protected? Copyright? License? If license, what terms?
  • Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:10:00 GMT(2)
  • Quote:

    Originally Posted by Learninglate

    So then, does this mean someone could just go to ReferenceUSA, get the information, change the order in which it is presented and resell it?

    Under copyright law, essentially yes. Look up the Supreme Court decision in Feist v. Rural Telephone.
    However, as alluded to in an earlier post, most people who sell or otherwise make available these sorts of lists have some sort of license agreement in place, so that they can create a contract cause of action if someone were to "steal" their materials.
  • Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:35:00 GMT(3)
  • Quote:

    Originally Posted by The Occultist

    Facts/information are not subject to copyright. The only possibility of copyright would be applied to any specific creativity in the layout of said information.

    So then, does this mean someone could just go to ReferenceUSA, get the information, change the order in which it is presented and resell it?
  • Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:20:00 GMT(4)
  • Facts/information are not subject to copyright. The only possibility of copyright would be applied to any specific creativity in the layout of said information.
  • Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:08:00 GMT(5)
  • You just invented www.hoovers.com.
    The only difference? They have analysis of the company performed by experts.
    Exactly what is the nature of your "added value"?
  • Leave a Comment Now.

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