In article ,
MCC writes:
Unfortunately the Hydrographer claims copyright on tidal information for
the UK and won't allow more than 7 days worth to be published on the
Internet at a time. 'He' even forced some programmers to remove UK tidal
constant data from their programs as the copyright belonged to him.

It would be interesting to see that tested in court. My understanding
has always been that factual data cannot be copyright, though a
particular format in which it is presented could be.
--
John Hall "Never play cards with a man called Doc.
Never eat at a place called Mom's.
Never sleep with a woman whose troubles
are worse than your own." Nelson Algren