Template:Derived information: Difference between revisions

If it is only data, it does not have the quality [[intellectual property]] at all, so the [[receiving party]]’s act in deriving some new type of creative work out of it is a novel thing, owes nothing to the [[discloser]]’s disclosure as such, builds upon no [[intellectual property]] of the discloser, and should not, therefore, be restricted at all. ''What loss could there be?'' The data still cannot be disclosed to anyone in a way that would betray the discloser’s confidence, but the derivation may well obliterate any confidentiality in the original document: say you give me a thousand characters of ''[[data]]'' (i.e. not [[intellectual property]] as such), on condition that I keep it confidential. And let’s say I rearrange the thousand characters into, for argument’s sake, a sonnet (which ''is'' prima facie susceptible of copyright protection — by me). Are there economic or legal justifications for obliging me to destroy that sonnet, or return it to you, under a confidentiality covenant? Humble report, sir, the answer is “no”.