Re: search engines destroy western civilization

On 5/18/2000, JQ Johnson <jqj[_at_]darkwing.uoregon.edu> wrote:
>
> Under what legal theory can we justify the existence of search engines
> as they are currently implemented? Unlike Napster, they make actual
> copies of copyrighted materials (web pages), and distribute them on
> request to the search engine's users. Although the original search
> engines often copied only individual words, modern search engines
> often have copies of the complete document as spidered (that's the
> Google "show matches" link).

    I have already stated that I believe Napster to be guilty of contributory infingement. However, I think that your point is excellent and by far the strongest grounds Napster has. So why do they not seem to be arguing it? is there a tech reason I am unaware of why the analogy breaks down?

                 James

James Michael Rogers
jetan[_at_]ionet.net Received on Sat May 27 2000 - 05:38:33 GMT