Chaos feared after Unix time-zone database is nuked

[comet--berkeley]

Chaos feared after Unix time-zone database is nuked
Developer sued for copyright infringement

http://http://www.theregister.co.uk/...ase_destroyed/

The internet's authoritative source for time-zone data has been shut down after the volunteer programmer who maintained it was sued for copyright infringement by a maker of astrology software.

David Olson, custodian of the Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Database, said on Thursday he was retiring the FTP server he's long maintained. Also known as the Olson database, it's the official reference Unix machines use to set clocks to local time and is used by countless websites and applications to reconcile time differences across the world.

[Carpetsmoker]

Even *I* know about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_P...ephone_Service

Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991),[1] commonly called Feist v. Rural, is an important United States Supreme Court case establishing that information alone without a minimum of original creativity cannot be protected by copyright.

I don't see how a timezone database is different ...

[J65nko]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10...zone_database/

The internet once again knows what time it is, after ICANN took over responsibility for the Time Zone Database.

[snip]

Rather than let matters slide as the case winds its way through the courts, ICANN last Friday (October 14) issued a release stating that it would assume custodianship of the database. It says its decision came after a request from the Internet Engineering Task Force.