Astrolabe Drops Lawsuit Over Time Zones, Promises Not To Sue Again
from the go-go-eff dept
Back in October, you may recall that software company Astrolabe claimed copyright over the time zone database and sued the volunteer maintainers of the public time zone database that is used by basically everyone to properly set the time. ICANN took over the database, and EFF took on the case of the two volunteers who were sued. Today EFF announced that Astrolabe has dropped the case and promised not to sue going forward.In a statement, Astrolabe said, "Astrolabe's lawsuit against Mr. Olson and Mr. Eggert was based on a flawed understanding of the law. We now recognize that historical facts are no one's property and, accordingly, are withdrawing our Complaint. We deeply regret the disruption that our lawsuit caused for the volunteers who maintain the TZ database, and for Internet users."In other words, the EFF did a typically excellent job explaining the basics of copyright law to Astrolabe, and/or its own lawyers realized that this case was a complete loser that was going to fail badly.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, data, facts, time zones
Companies: astrolabe, eff, icann
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Or would that be a hysterically funny fact?
Copyright, is it sending us towards a new Dark Ages?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
So, a slap on the wrist, and drinks all around?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Unfortunately, you are likely right about this. However I still hope that the maximum punishment will be stripping all legitimate "IP" from the company in question as well as a fine for being a douche.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 22nd, 2012 @ 8:04pm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 22nd, 2012 @ 8:04pm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmm
These lawyers should be disbarred at the very least.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What More PROOF That You Need That Google Is Behind The EFF??
And what is with all this making fun of Astrologers, just because their Radical Ideas are at odds with Orthodox Science? What happened to Keeping An Open Mind on Important Questions? Who gave Science ownership over reality, anyway? As far as I'm concerned, all you unbelieving anti-faithers can just EFF off!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What More PROOF That You Need That Google Is Behind The EFF??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What More PROOF That You Need That Google Is Behind The EFF??
So they are going after Dr. WHO and his little dog K-9 too???
Once the MPAA / RIAA figure out that he can travel to the future and bring back out of copyright Public Domain versions of every thing they ever owned (stole from the artists and the public), Dr. WHO will be sued until his TARDIS turns blue... well, a darker shade of blue.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What More PROOF That You Need That Google Is Behind The EFF??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Education
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lawyers...
There's no edge condition here that they could have been working near - the database is a clear listing of facts and every lawyer should know that such things aren't copyrightable. Shouldn't their lawyers have refused to file the paperwork for them?
Shouldn't there be sanctions on the lawyers for something this egregious?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So... they blame the lawyers for being incompetent for not correcting their obvious misunderstanding of the law. Excellent.
Well, I guess since we can't own these historical facts we should move on. I hear there's some great property in the scientific facts area that is lovely this time of year.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]