Re: Public Domain

From: Joseph Pietro Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:17:42 -0400

On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Dan Lester <dan[_at_]riverofdata.com> wrote: 

>

> Would it be possible for someone to provide the URL of the website in
> question? That would allow us to see the wording for ourselves. In
> addition, as a librarian, it sounds like it may have content that
> could be of value to my faculty and students.

I have seen some websites imposing terms and conditions that restrict the uses of the public domain materials. Here is one that I can easily remember (because it is a very popular website):

          http://www.archive.org/about/terms.php

Notice that the second paragraph said that the uses are limited to scholarship and research purposes even though some materials are in the public domain. Also, you cannot copy them without written permission.

Are these enforceable? Most U.S. courts could say yes. Will the folks at Internet Archive spend a lot of money on suing people for the violation of the terms and conditions in respect to the public domain materials? Probably not but the terms and conditions will make you think twice because they can come back at you 10 years later, 20 years later, and beyond.

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: 5,682

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Thu Jun 12 2003 - 19:17:42 GMT

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