Re: use of electronic materials

This message is from Trotter Hardy .

You know, come to think of it, when Mary Brandt Jensen asks about a laptop in an airport ...

> > If I had a paper copy of that manual, I could read it at home, in
> > my office, in the library, in an airport terminal or at a meeting.
> > There is no need to display or perform the manual. But if it is
> > electronic, I have to display it on my screen to read it. And if
> > I am located in a public place (as defined by the copyright law), that
> > is a public display which must be authorized by the copyright law.

... she worries that the laptop image might constitute a "public display." If that were true, wouldn't it also be true that reading a *printed* book would be a public display? What's the difference? A "display" doesn't imply only electronic displays; printed materials can be "displayed" as well.

It looks to me as though if the one is a problem, so is the other.

        --Trotter Hardy

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