“For years, Eric Weisstein’s Treasure Trove Web site, more
recently named MathWorld, was a valuable resource on the Web. It
contained, among other things, information and code on a wide
variety of computer algorithms….”
“Eric Weisstein, the creator of Eric’s Treasure Trove,
turned the content of the site into a book, The CRC Concise
Encyclopedia of Mathematics, published by CRC Press. In the
process, CRC Press acquired the copyright ownership of that
material–but the extent of what they acquired is the central issue
of the dispute.“
“For a while, Eric’s Web site remained available. Then, at the
request of CRC Press, access to the algorithms was limited to items
starting with ten letters of the alphabet at a time, but the
selection of which ten would be changed each day. Later the limit
was removed, though now the site has been shut down
completely.”