phone lookups (morally spoken)

[Bettina Jodda (Twister)]

Good morning,

On Tuesday 25 June 2002 01:13, Dave Howe wrote:

....data from phone book CDs etc

> again, it depends. assuming that the data is public in origin, then the
> database as a whole is copyright its compiler, but individual items that
> make it up aren't (its a difficult area, the list lawyers might be able
> to give you a clearer definition of it than I can). There are also all
> the usual fair use provisions, with excerpts under a certain size not
> being actionable.

Erm, even it might sound rude but I would like to come back to the less
copyright-orientated and more moral-orientated way of thinking.

Do you think that data which "could" be accessible to anyone should really
*made* accessible to anyone?

That is actually why I came up with the German law etc. --- does the fact that 
my data could be retrieved by anyone give someone the right to spread it out?

For example at Denic there are restrictions regarding the use of data.

But - without wanting to sound too moralistic - if we use the argument "this 
data could be accessible to anyone" we could also say "if you pretend to be 
the friend of person xy for just so long, you would also know about his 
sexual behavious - just as I do - and therefore I am allowed to spread out 
his data about his sexual behaviour"

I think apart from the legal restrictions it would be neccessary to accept 
some "moral" restrictions (I do not like the word "moral" but could not come 
up with an appropriate one, sorry).

Even though I could get the data from my neighbour quite easily and I know 
that almost anybody could I would not give out his data via the internet.

Twister
(maybe in a philosophical mode, do not know....:-)