http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090518204959409
It's a bit weird because Wolfram is not the one solely responsible for Alpha's output; the user has to give Alpha the right input to produce the right output, so I don't really know how this could work in court.
Sure, you triggered the event. But my black box did all the actual work, right? Similarly, if you say something to your friend and that inspires them to create a painting. Can you claim ownership to that?
(Food for thought: can you really "copyright" or "own" a mathematical expression or graph, though? Because that's most of Wolfram Alpha)
Also, copyright applies to anything fixed in a medium of expression. You can not copyright a formula, but you can copyright its expression as soon as it is fixed in a medium. You cannot copyright the abstract idea of a graph, but you can copyright its expression or rendering once fixed in a medium.
Related article (I've only skimmed through it): http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/784302/Copyright/Mathmatical+E...
Yes, you can. Graphs, numbers, it doesn't matter, it's all information.
Can I copyright my book? What if someone converts my entire book from letters to numbers and them modulates the numbers as a mathematical graph using, say amplitude. Can he freely distribute that graph? Or better yet, can he convert that graph from pixels on a screen to radio waves and broadcast it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry
Mathematical facts are usually also not copyrightable for the same reason: they're just considered raw data. However, we can obviously copyright a mathematics book or article because there's more than just raw facts in it: there's style, presentation, and many other signs of authorship.
> In a legal sense also, you can copyright the content of a math book (such as diagrams, word problems, and illustrations) but the formula, problems, proofs, theorems themselves cannot be copyrighted. You cannot copyright a fact which is established and natural i.e., 1+1=2.