A question from Derek Lomas, regarding the impact of a recent court case, where US District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday ruled that aggregation of web content may not be blocked -- in all cases -- by copyright (see Judge on Search: Copyright Doesn't Cover All Web Sites).

The case revolved around aggregation of boat information from a variety of copyrighted sites by Nautical Solutions, Inc., which presented this aggregation of information to prospective buyers of yachts. The judge argued that the presentation of factual information about the boats was lawful, and that the rights to the pictures and other information were really held by the yacht owners, not those hosting the web sites where the information was being presented.

So -- in response to Derek's question -- my sense is that information about individuals that is made accessible in various social networking and /or dating sites may be subject to the same interpretation.

This opens the door to possible spidering of social networking/dating sites for purposes analogous to those of Nautical Solutions in the boating world. What you are entering about your goals, desires, likes, and dislikes in business partners or soulmates may turn out to not be copyrightable -- it may simply be ruled to be "factual information" and not protected, as a result.