CompuServe Thread

Sure, there's one way to protect data from copying : don't release it. Or, in this case, if you simply adapted public domain data, find a way to add value to it. Otherwise, you're wishing to protect your product in ways that it can't be protected. If it can be read into the computer, it can be copied. Other schemes are possible, but can be cracked: for example, you could make the data sort-of "read only" by encrypting it, and only allowing access to it through a viewer program that didn't allow prints or saves of the decrypted data. What sort of data are you talking about? How will your customers use it?

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!