nanog mailing list archives

Re: Question re prevention of enumeration with DNSSEC (NSEC3, etc.)


From: Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>
Date: Sat, 7 May 2022 19:06:00 +0000

Actually, that source quotes the Feist decision. The rest of the discussion makes it pretty clear that domain 
registries are not copyrightable.

“Thus, a database of unprotectable works (such as basic facts) is protected only as a compilation. Since the underlying 
data is not protected, U.S. copyright law does not prevent the extraction of unprotected data from an otherwise 
protectable database. In the example of a database of presidential quotations, it would therefore not be a violation of 
copyright law to extract (copy) a quotation from George Washington from the database. On the other hand, it would be 
violation to copy the entire database, as long as the database met the 
Feist<https://bitlaw.com/copyright/database.html#Feist> originality and creativity requirements.”

The key problem is that no domain registry meets the originality and creativity requirements set forth by SCOTUS in 
Feist.

I am not a lawyer either, but I have a lot of initials after my name, just like some lawyers that post on NANOG :)

 -mel beckman, ABC, ACM, DEF, PFL, MEL, SEL, IFR, A&P, X&Y, QWERTY, ASDFG, NANOG,and St. Anthony’s Elementary School 
Diploma

On May 7, 2022, at 9:58 AM, Niels Bakker <niels=nanog () bakker net> wrote:

* mel () beckman org (Mel Beckman) [Sat 07 May 2022, 18:38 CEST]:
I don’t think copyright can enter into it, by dint of the fact that registry data, being purely factual and publicly 
available, cannot be copyrighted.

I'm not a lawyer nor pretend to be one on the internet but https://bitlaw.com/copyright/database.html provides some 
nuance to that statement.


   -- Niels.

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