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Stock Indexes

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T

THKalinke

Guest
Hi!

I am interested in writing a book about stock market panics. Would like to use existing stock indexes, e.g., Dow Industrials, S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite to create charts.

Questions: Are stock index numbers, such as we see in the daily newspapers, protected by copyright? If I sell a book containing charts of the above-mentioned stock indexes, am I violating the rights of the companies that calculate the indexes, such as Dow Jones or McGraw-Hill or the NASD?

I would think that this ought to have a cut-and-dried answer. The only creativity that I can see in a stock index value is in the formula used to calculate the index. The numbers themselves are derived from stock prices; no creativity there. Of course, I intend to give titles to the charts, such as "Dow Industrials, 1929-1930".

Any opinions? Many thanks! Tom
 



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