Re: Switching alarm system - can I convert my database?

[Pat Coghlan <news@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the info.

I guess the only point in question is whether one has the right to use
the table structure (field names etc.) to interpret the data and
relationships.  I mean, there's really no other way to do this
efficiently.  It's not practical to dump out all the tables and start
piecing the information bits back together.

This is such a fine point, though, so I doubt any vendor is going to try
and stop a customer from extracting the information.

Robert L Bass wrote:
>> There is an export function for cardholders only,
>> but we have lots of other data (alarm point
>> descriptions etc. - thousands of them) that could be moved over.
>>
>> Doing the conversion is not the problem.  I'm
>> wondering if it can be done in a way to avoid
>> infringing the EULA - which seems to preclude this type of data mining.
>
> Regardless what they wrote in the EULA, if the
> data is information you supplied, such as keyholder
> names, schedules, access privileges, that data
> belongs to you.  The people who wrote the software
> cannot claim title to it nor can they do anything to
> prevent you from "mining" it back from the database.
>
> The copyright associated with a software product is
> there to protect the author against unauthorised use
> of his product.  It doesn not grant him title to your
> information, regardless how his product encodes
> and stores it.
>
> This is analogous to buying a file cabinet.  The
> designer of the cabinet has the right not to have
> you copy his design and market it.  But the files
> in it belong to you.  Going one step further, if you're
> old enough to recall Cardex file systems, you'll
> remember the ingenious method used to select
> and sort cards using metal rods.  The design was
> created in the 50's and remained in use into the
> early 70's.  You could not copy the design or even
> make your own cards (though presumably lots of
> people did).  The cards and the rod sorting system
> were patented.  But the data on the cards was not
> the property of Cardex.  That belonged to whoever
> typed it onto each card.  Modern databases are
> far more sophisticated than Cardex.  But the legal
> principles concerning them and the data they hold
> have not changed much in the last 50 years.
>