Who owns the data

I have been reading the recent fictional articles in rootsweb review illustrating how individuals could begin tracing their family trees.

In one article the fictional person reasons that no-one could own her genealogy. Of course this is true. No-one can own events in our ancestors lives and the dates and places they happenned.

How then, can companies such as rootsweb itself through ancesrty.com, claim to copyright this data in the form of BDM indexes etc?

Can anyone shed any light on the morality and legality of all this?

Some companies claim that if they do not charge enough to pay transcribers, computer genealogy as we know it will cease to be. However, my own local Genealogical Society has indexed records using volunteers and charges only what is necessary to recover printing costs.

Is it legal to give lookups? Doesn't this mailing list deprive some of these companies who claim these copyrights of their "rightful" revenue?

I am surprised that in a nation like Australia, built on mateship and larrikin defiance of authority, that people on this mailing list should righteously bleat: "pirate!" and fall into line like sheep, whenever an individual proposes sharing cds, much in the same way that we all on this list share data by doing lookups.

Please give me your views. I do not seek those who would reap ill gotten rewards from other's sweat, but views on which ways it is acceptable to share information and which are not.