Re: Public Domain

On Thu, 5 Jun 2003 Nakerite[_at_]aol.com wrote:
>
> Hello.
>
> I found a wesbite which has facimile reporductions of public domain
> works. No fee is charged to access them. Juct click as it were. The website
> requires their permission, however, to use the materials. It this enforcable?
>
> Patrick R. Saucer

It is not easy to answer the question without more details about the relationships between the parties. Generally speaking, if the relationship is contractual (such as agreeing to the terms and conditions), yes, requirement of permission can be enforced. But if the relationship is otherwise, the conduct is governed by laws. In this case, the requirement of permission to copy public domain materials is not enforceable.

As an example, there are three people. Let's call them as Person A, Person B, and Person C. Person A owns a public domain material. Before Person B can use the public domain material, he agrees to the terms and conditions as required by Person A. After agreeing to them, Person B copies the public domain material to his own PC. Person C visits Person B. Person B shows the public domain material to Person C. Person C wants to have a copy of it and Person B without any thought about the terms and conditions that he agreed to at the first place permits him to make a copy of it. Person C copies the public domain material to his own CD.

In the example, Person C does not agree to any terms and conditions as required by Person A and therefore, is free to do with the public domain material that he copied from Person B's PC. However, Person B will be in a miserable position because he breached the terms and conditions. When Person A finds out about this, he will sue Person B.

The moral of the example is avoid being Person B.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
http://www.boycottcopyright.com

Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 5,687

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Fri Jun 06 2003 - 20:32:50 GMT