A poem distributed via the internet must be "published" because it becomes
fixed in several material objects. Setting aside the MAI question of
whether an item in RAM is to be considered "fixed", the normal course of
events for the publicly posted poem will be that it is copied onto several
hard disks, which in turn are backed up to tapes, compact disks, or other
hard disks. Much of this is fully automated, as predictable as pages coming
out of a printing press. Several of these copies will exist for 10 years or
more. Other disk-resident copies (cached copies) will last for less time --
how long does an item stay cached on google? Clearly, these copies are
fixed in a tangible medium.
At 11:45 AM 9/30/2002 -0700, Tyler Ochoa wrote:
>"Publication" is defined as the distribution of copies to the public.
>A public display does not itself qualify as a distribution. "Copies"
>are defined as material objects in which the work is fixed.
>
>The problem is that the statute contemplates a book model of
>publication: the copies are printed [fixed] first, then distributed.
>With the Internet, things work the other way: the distribution of
>electronic bits occurs, then a "copy" is printed at the receiving end.
>It is simply unclear whether this qualifies as a "distribution" and
>hence a "publication" within the meaning of the statute.
>
>However, most courts consider a "RAM" version of a work to be a "copy,"
>and thus gloss over the conceptual difficulty. In the one case that I
>recall directly on point (sorry, I don't have the name or cite handy),
>the court concluded that posting on the Internet WAS a "publication."
http://www.kaner.com http://www.badsoftware.com
Author (with Bach & Pettichord) LESSONS LEARNED IN SOFTWARE TESTING (Wiley,
2001)
Author (with Falk & Nguyen) TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (2nd Ed, Wiley)
Author (with David Pels) of BAD SOFTWARE (Wiley, 1998
Received on Wed Nov 06 2002 - 03:58:54 GMT
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