Are prices public domain data?

[RPEX]

Not really interested in stock data - that MUST be in the public domain. But for the derivatives exchanges, do they have any right to say who can publish their historical prices? They publish them on their website, broadcast them to ISVs and they get published in financial media, both dead trees and online.

I understand that there might be an issue with live data (because presumably one should pay for the feed, and the right to make commercial use of that feed), but how about historical data?

Any thoughts much appreciated

rp

 

[comintel]

Quote from RPEX:

Not really interested in stock data - that MUST be in the public domain. But for the derivatives exchanges, do they have any right to say who can publish their historical prices? They publish them on their website, broadcast them to ISVs and they get published in financial media, both dead trees and online.

I understand that there might be an issue with live data (because presumably one should pay for the feed, and the right to make commercial use of that feed), but how about historical data?

Any thoughts much appreciated

rp

Good question - someone should ask CME.

However, note that under copyright law, there is something called a collection copyright. A collection can be copyright even if the individual items in it are not eligible for copyright. So they *might* claim under that. I do not know if they do.