You're in Europe, you are protected. The database is copyrighted whilst the data isn't itself copyrightable. It is when the act of compiling the data is non-trivial and you can show that the data has resulted from this process (which you appear to be able to given that you have used names and entered routes in a way specific to your process) that you are covered.
I'd start off with talking to him. His website http://www.philipkirwan.ie/site/index.html states that he's doing an undergrad at Dublin City University, which no doubt includes lessons in the social aspect of computing including Copyright, Patents and Data Protection, etc.
My points: He will be well aware of copyright, and the institution really does not want to bring itself into disrepute as a result of the actions of their students. It would not do his study well at all to provable have stolen the work of someone else having been made very well aware of copyright during prior study. The question raised, "Is all of Philip Kirwin's work his own work?". And that for a university, and for Philip himself is a very big deal.
So I'd simply appeal to his own sense of self-preservation in that if he has indeed (as it appears) taken the content from your work and passed it off as his own then he is playing with fire that will burn him far greater than just losing the right to sell one iPhone application.
At this point, he's already potentially damaged his reputation through his actions, now it is up to him to determine whether he wants to salvage this or risk burning himself totally.
Except his own act of compiling is by ‘scraping’ the original source, against their own copyrights and T&Cs. In the case of a bus company’s timetable their own data—the times they run to, routes, etc.—is not public domain unless they release it as such. Both developers are equally at fault unless one or both has written permission to use the data in this manner.
No, but it’s my understanding that you can copyright a collection of them if the act of doing so involved considerable work, as pointed out by warp and myself multiple times. So the original website that was scraped holds such a copyright. Please don’t express your opinion as a fact… Of course, IANAL and don’t play one on TV, so both sides could be argued in court. But the original poster doesn’t have any more rights in the data itself than the person who allegedly ripped him off. He has rights in his code, his database schema, etc., but not in the data itself.
Comments
You're in Europe, you are protected. The database is copyrighted whilst the data isn't itself copyrightable. It is when the act of compiling the data is non-trivial and you can show that the data has resulted from this process (which you appear to be able to given that you have used names and entered routes in a way specific to your process) that you are covered.
I'd start off with talking to him. His website http://www.philipkirwan.ie/site/index.html states that he's doing an undergrad at Dublin City University, which no doubt includes lessons in the social aspect of computing including Copyright, Patents and Data Protection, etc.
My points: He will be well aware of copyright, and the institution really does not want to bring itself into disrepute as a result of the actions of their students. It would not do his study well at all to provable have stolen the work of someone else having been made very well aware of copyright during prior study. The question raised, "Is all of Philip Kirwin's work his own work?". And that for a university, and for Philip himself is a very big deal.
So I'd simply appeal to his own sense of self-preservation in that if he has indeed (as it appears) taken the content from your work and passed it off as his own then he is playing with fire that will burn him far greater than just losing the right to sell one iPhone application.
At this point, he's already potentially damaged his reputation through his actions, now it is up to him to determine whether he wants to salvage this or risk burning himself totally.
It may be more fun to share this information with his lecturer. I am sure the School would take a dim view of this.
Computing Dr Stephen Blott
Work Area: Head of School
Except his own act of compiling is by ‘scraping’ the original source, against their own copyrights and T&Cs. In the case of a bus company’s timetable their own data—the times they run to, routes, etc.—is not public domain unless they release it as such. Both developers are equally at fault unless one or both has written permission to use the data in this manner.
Their time tables are facts and you can't copyright a fact. Please don't express an opinion as a fact.
No, but it’s my understanding that you can copyright a collection of them if the act of doing so involved considerable work, as pointed out by warp and myself multiple times. So the original website that was scraped holds such a copyright. Please don’t express your opinion as a fact… Of course, IANAL and don’t play one on TV, so both sides could be argued in court. But the original poster doesn’t have any more rights in the data itself than the person who allegedly ripped him off. He has rights in his code, his database schema, etc., but not in the data itself.
This is europe, collections of facts are covered by database rights (directive 96/9/EC).
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My God. Scraping is not illegal. Please. But... IANAL.
May not be illegal, but is against the T&Cs of the site, so could be a civil matter if the original site decided to argue it in court…
He's an undergrad.
Only studying a Bachelors degree. He'd definitely be aware of the legal positioning of copyright though.
Report him IMO. Rights Infringement.
You're correct... I read it wrong as I was scanning. Fixed my post.