...because that might be considered copyright infringement (also I don't trust any of you.) http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6415/125/


Strangest story I've read all week. Well, it is only Monday. So what do you think about the postal service owning your address and being able to sue you for sharing it?

They own the concept of a postcode database, but not your postcode itself. If that were the case, then whenever I told someone my postcode (or wrote it down in a form), I'd be sued a million times over by now.

Also, it wouldn't matter if I told anyone my postcode because nobody wants to go to Surrey unless they absolutely have to.

In that case, I sure hope they make that database publically and freely available for everyone.

Wow. The mind boggles. You live in Surrey as well?

I hope so too. It only makes sense - given that Canada Post is owned by the government. Even then, it's beyond me why what is essentially a list of postal codes can be something you can hold a monopoly over. How is that part of the public interest? Yeah. I'm only in Toronto for university, but our house is in Surrey.

But a collection of post codes IS a post code database (even if it, in its most simple form, is just a long list), so if they would make the post code list available, everyone would possibly have a database of post codes - something they obviously can't allow since they own the concept of a post cod database.

Wow. Small world indeed. What part of Surrey, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm now waiting for the Catholic Church to sue the Canadian postal service _and_ half of the western world for unlicensed usage of their given names.

I live a few streets away from Whalley town centre. I like how they've tried to make it all fancy with the new library and everything.

Ah yes. I'm in Fraser Heights. Bloody nightmare getting in and out of here before they put in that 156 Street underpass. Still bad enough with all the construction.

That is one of the possibilities suggested by the article but I don't understand the justification. For example; if I post a clip from a movie on YouTube, that is technically copyright infringement even though I didn't post the entire movie. How can Canada Post own the database but not the individual components of that database? Unfortunately, in Canada, intellectual property generated by government offices doesn't default to the public domain like it does in the US. It should, in my opinion.

I must say, I don't go to Guildford a lot (let alone Fraser Heights). For some reason it's as foreign to me as going to another continent. I'd rather drive to Richmond or Burnaby than go there. Still, good to know I'm not the only one who suffers from annoying construction!

lol - I sometimes get down your way to check out the Surrey Central mall. But we actually do most of our shopping in Langley. Hell, getting into the Guildford mall is frelling nightmare right now.

Well, you can't own a postcode. It's such an abstract item to claim ownership of. In the same way that my address on XXX Avenue doesn't make me the owner of that location.

Also, with a clip of a movie, that depends on many factors before someone yells "infringement" at you. Is it used for parody? Are you within your fair use rights? Do people know that you're not the owner of the movie/clip?

Well, I guess that is what a judge will have to determine. And there are no exceptions for parody or fair use in the Copyright Act of Canada. I realize YouTube's servers are in the US and that is where my comparison falls apart. I was simply attempting to pose the question; if they don't own the parts that make up the whole, how can they own the whole?