[at-l] Databook mileages...

[DataBook97@aol.com (DataBook97@aol.com)]

In a message dated 04/01/2001 5:42:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
gaudet@mediaone.net writes:

<<  If I go out and measure distances along the AT I don't believe 
 that WF or ATC can prevent me from using them in my own guide. I 
 believe you can copyright formats for the presentation of data, but 
 the data itself is not copyrightable.>>

    Well, Wingfoot could do his own measurements if he wanted to   But that's 
not what we're talking about here.  The question is whether Wingfoot can use 
the A.T. Data Book mileages in his own publications.  Certainly, he could go 
out and measure the trail for himself, but I doubt whether he is planning on 
doing this.  The specific data that ATC has gathered is copyrightable, I 
think, and I very much doubt that if anyone set out to measure the entire 
A.T. himself, he would come up with exactly the same mileages that we have in 
the Data Book -- to the nearest 0.1 mile!
 
<<Map makers, like DeLorme, build in anti-copying devices into their 
 maps that they and occasionally the public know about. It's sometimes 
 a fictitious street or an incorrect extension of a brook or other 
 natural feature (they try to pick something benign). This would be a 
 good method for detecting copies of the ATC or WF datasets except 
 that everyone who uses them would be a victim of the inaccuracy! This 
 is the first time I've thought about trail mileages in this manner. 
 Could some of those "inaccuracies" that I experienced actually be 
 dataset protection devices that I experienced on foot? >>

    As the editor of the Data Book, I can state unequivocally that we have 
never purposely introduced any errors into this publication.  To the best of 
my knowledge, this is not done on ATC maps, either.  If any of you encounter 
anything in the Data Book that appears to be inaccurate, please bring it to 
my attention.  (For this purpose, you might want to use my other e-mail 
address, DChazin@aol.com, which is intended for personal mail rather than 
mail from the list).  But I've never purposely distorted data as an 
"anti-copying device."

        Daniel Chazin
        Editor, AT Data Book