"Published to the world" is a bit off; I'd compare it more to recording telephone conversations with corporations' public service numbers. They always tell you that you are being recorded (for "training and quality purposes") so they give up their right to not be recorded in turn.
If a company paid a million people to call into an information service hotline and each request one fact from it—and then the company recorded and compiled the answers into their own database to start their own information service—is that illegal?
>If a company paid a million people to call into an information service hotline and each request one fact from it—and then the company recorded and compiled the answers into their own database to start their own information service—is that illegal?
I sure hope not. From there it doesn't seem to far off to claim that "He was really only ever showing up for work to learn some skills and how he's using those skills to run his own business!" sort of lawsuits. If you compile difficult to find but freely available information into a more easy to digest format I see that as virtually always a net positive.
If a company paid a million people to call into an information service hotline and each request one fact from it—and then the company recorded and compiled the answers into their own database to start their own information service—is that illegal?