Ask HN: Can you enforce copyright on your internet clicktrail?

5 pointstechbio3 comments

Just out of curiousity, if a person chooses a personal set of web content and accounts, what would prevent them from exerting copyright on those who would repackage and sell their personal, habitual choices of clicktrail?

View on HN

A clicktrail is not copyrightable - it's just data generated as a byproduct of web browsing. Only creative works[1] are covered under copyright law[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_work

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Thank you for the reply. I’m just not sure that intentionality, self-expression, and idea development are so clearly absent in the requests made to so many specific services.

Serious questions: What if someone made intentional patterns in their click trail? Just for the sake of the trail itself? For instance this person believed data was beautiful and/or wanted to make a statement with the shape and/or content of the data produced.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com