RJF says:
> Tilu incorporates some data that CRC Press presumably owns [namely]
> the computerized form of about 800 integrals from CRC table of
> integrals.
>
> I suppose one could type them in again from some other source
> (math formulas themselves, like recipes, cannot be copyrighted, I
> think). But in fact we didn't.
It is undisputed that mathematical facts cannot be copyrighted (or
patented).
The status of CRC Press's tables (on paper or in TeX) is less clear,
under various legal doctrines.
Apparently UCB is comfortable with the TILU web service being based on
the CRC Press TeX files. Is this because UCB's lawyers have determined
that using the Tex sources in this way to provide a Web service is not
an infringement, or perhaps because UCB has gotten a letter from CRC
Press authorizing this use?
There seem to be four basic approaches to getting the TILU database (or
something like it) into Maxima legally:
1) Ask CRC Press for permission. I guess UCB has tried this?
2) Force the legal issue. Hire a good lawyer to analyze the situation,
and if s/he believes that using the TeX sources is OK, do it. But be
prepared to be sued by CRC Press if they don't agree. (Who will pay the
legal fees? -- is this something that, say, the EFF would be interested
in?)
3) Develop a clean integral database from public domain sources,
including pre-1914 works (or whatever the date is now), government works
(Abramovitz and Stegun), etc. If the 1914 CRC handbook had exactly the
same tables, I wonder if the TeX version can claim to have a more recent
copyright (not at all clear).
4) Develop a clean integral database from a combination of public domain
and copyrighted sources. Doing this right would require some legal
guidance.
Of course, I am not a lawyer, and we'd want a competant copyright
lawyer's advice on this.
-s