Copyright Aid

Hi,

I'm writing a book with sporting biographies as the theme. It is a different work to anything that has been done before but, part of the book involves the publication of dates and places of birth of the competitors.

There has been one other author who has collected and published this information but can that person hold copyright on the dates and places of birth of people when the information is held in the public domain i.e. Family Records Office?

Thanks for reading.

They would not hold copyright on the dates and places of birth, but they will hold copyright on the work that they created - particularly if they have had to compile the information themselves (not an issue if they are simply quoting a public list).
i.e. if you use the book as one of your sources to check facts you include this is fine, wholesale copying from the source material may be a different matter.

Thanks for the reply. It's a lot clearer now.

I will be checking the dates and places of birth at the Family Records Centre but, would it be considered acceptable to use a small amount of the previously published information if I am unable to find what I am looking for i.e. Overseas competitors?