My situation is: Astronomical data giving the dates and times of new moons, past, present, and future, has allowed me to determine the dates of the beginnings of some of the months of a biblical lunisolar calendar, months such as Abib,Tishri, etc., since all months in this calendar begin with a new moon. This allows me to then easily determine the Gregorian calendar or Julian calendar equivalent of any day of such months, or vice versa, in which a particular event occurred. This information I am considering including in a publication which includes the topic of Bible chronology. My question is: If some of the astronomical data, although helpful in the manner described, is excluded from the publication, is acknowledgment of the omitted data and/or acknowledgment of the facilitation of information nevertheless either required or customary. If so, will a general acknowledgment of the facilitation of information suffice, or is reference, in each case, to the specific information facilitated neccessary?
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Washington Already Tried: U.S. Coyright Office
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Under the Fair Use Doctrine (section 504 of the Copyright Act) you can use small amounts of even copyrighted material for educational, news, editorial, parody or satire purposes. Thus, even if the data were copyrighted, which it is not likely to be since that type of data, while original, cannot be expressed in any other manner, is not typically capable of copyright (just like recipes are not copyrightable).
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The astronomical data I am mainly referring to and/or the source,
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phasecat.html, seem(s) to have some connection to NASA, but the source seems to imply a copyright owner of the data as it calls for acknowledgment in the case of reproduction of the data. If the data is copyrighted, and if the Fair Use Doctrine does not apply in my case, what would your answer be?
That is government information and they are not asking you get permission, they are just stating you acknowledge where the data came from. You have permission to reproduce it when they say, "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment:"
1)Am I right to understand that the data is not copyrighted but that there is a requirement of acknowledgment? 2)If there is a requirement of acknowledgment,does it extend to the instances I described and does the the Fair Use Doctrine apply to the issue of acknowledgment?
The data is copyrighted, but they have given written consent to use it as long as it is acknowledged. If you reproduce the data in any way you must give acknowledgment as that would not fall under fair use unless you are using a very small portion of the data for one of the purposes listed in the Fair Use exception.
1) Are you saying that whether acknowledgment is required in my case
depends on whether what I described concerning the publication of dates
facilitated by the astronomical data constitutes a reproduction of the data?
2) If so, does publication of dates facilitated by the astronomical data in either of
the ways I described constitute a reproduction of the data?
No, I am saying you must give acknowledgment to use the data if you use the data.It does not matter when the data was published, if you use it you must acknowledge it.
Is it the case then that, if I do not use the astronomical data, I have no obligation to acknowledge any dates facilitated by the astronomical data?
If you do not use the data, then you have no reason to acknowledge it.