Re: websites: public vs private information?

On 5/22/2000, William S. Lovell <wsl[_at_]cerebalaw.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 17 May 2000, Tyler Ochoa <tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> wrote:
> >
> > The 1976 Act defines publication as "the distribution of copies or
> > phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of
> > ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending." Copies/phonorecords
> > are material objects in which a work is fixed. This model of
> > publication, therefore, contemplates the fixation of the work in
> > material objects, and then the distribution of those material
> > objects to the public. The difficulty with Internet publication
> > is that the model is reversed: The distribution (electronic
> > transfer) occurs before the fixation (in RAM or on a hard disk at
> > the other end).
>
> 'Fraid not. The internet material is "fixed" on the hard drive
> of the computer hosting the web site, and "the fixation (in RAM
> or on a hard disk at the other end) is actually copying. Whether
> the posting on the internet itself constitutes "publication" is
> still an open question under any strict analysis of the copyright
> law; see:
>
> http://cerebalaw.com/copy.htm

'Fraid not again. Many web sites (arguably the majority of all web page hits) are generated dynamically and *never* exist on the hard drive or even as a whole in RAM or any other device at the location of the "the other end" in the form in which they are received.

In a technical sense, there may not even be an "other end" -- the web site can be created as a collection of information from many "other ends" on demand.

It strikes me as interesting that the first, and possibly the only "fixation" may very well be at the receiving end.

Barry Caplan
<bcaplan[_at_]i18n.com> Received on Sat May 27 2000 - 17:18:25 GMT