Non-literary reproductions of literary works
The second question identified earlier raises an important issue about what it means to "reproduce" a substantial part of a literary compilation and whether, more specifically. such a reproduction can take pictorial or diagrammatical form in a map or other drawing. if the exclusive reproduction right in such a literary work could be infringed by someone who has made an artistic work, this would significantly extend the scope of the reproduction right conferred on literary compilations by copyright law. After all, shouldn't the literary copyright in a work protect that work only to the extent that there has been a substantial reproduction of the literary expression found in that work?
Not all scenarios of literary compilations being reproduced in two-dimensional drawings are equally problematic. Take, for example, a situation involving a compilation comprising five categories of materials with five selected items in each category arranged in a particular way. lt would not be too difficult to make a case for copyright infringement if someone were to come along and draw a diagram with five columns (or circles or other enclosed polygons). each containing the illustrations or descriptions of the five items selected by the original author and ordered in exactly the same way. The elements of selection and arrangement that comprise the authorial expression in the literary compilation--the manner in which the materials were structured, sequenced and organised--have undeniably been reproduced diagrammatically.
However, the situation becomes less clear in the case of a purely factual compilation of raw data. Where the compilation is essentially a collection of co-ordinates, dimensions and raw information about the physical characteristics of a particular object or place--would a detailed drawing of that object or place and its features based on the compiled information infringe the copyright in the compilation as a literary work? Isn't copyright supposed to protect how the information has been expressed in the literary work, rather than the information per se? Very similar questions were addressed by the English courts in Autospin (Oil Seals) Ltd v Beehive Spinning, 29 where there was an allegation ‘Z3 that the defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s literary copyright in a compilation of detailed measurements. set out in charts containing the critical dimensions for the manufacture of an oil seal. by copying those dimensions and making three-dimensional reproductions of the literary work.