CompuServe Messages

Amit, I'm not a lawyer, but I think you are mistaken in your main statement: "The information on the CD, once downloaded to some other media, is considered public domain…." If it is copyrighted material to begin with (ie: an article, poem, picture, software program — whatever) it is covered by copyright law. You might transfer an article from the Time Mag disc but that doesn't mean it has become public domain. You may take a photo from another disc and run it through a printer but that doesn't make it public domain. Etc. I'm a little confused about the rest of your statement: "…but the time it took to transfer it to the ascii format is worth a lot of money." Only creativity confers copyright. For instance if I write a story and give it to you to put into "ascii" or whatever, the copyright is mine not yours simply because you typed it with a typewriter or changed it into a computer document. For instance if you take a public domain book — the Bible or Shakespeare are good examples — and put it into ascii you don't own the Bible or Hamlet anymore than a publisher who puts it into a book, probably the book that you copied it from. I think we'd need more details if you'd like more info. Cheers!