Re: to the point/Latin mutteri

On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Mark Lemley asked:
>
> Query for the world at large: in the limited environs of the net, would
> a right of attribution which *replaced* copyright be satisfactory?

    Why limit the idea to the environs of the net?

    Is it because the net is in some way special enough to be treated differently than other media?

    Some people on the net treat it as a private community; some even treat it as a private gated community. That is, they treat the net as having its own law which supplants the law that applies outside the gates. This has more appeal (to me, at least) in matters of interest to and with stakeholders only within the net than it has in matters involving people or property outside the net, e.g., people and copyright owners who have not agreed to submit themselves or their property to "net law."

    This does not seem limited to matters of copyright. Consider, for example, the surprise in some quarters over defamation suits being brought against people who post on the net statements that surely would incite litigation posted in a newspaper or on a sign.

    Question: May we expect the net to experience increased submission to (non-net) law to the extent the net is used more and more by people in general and by commercial interests (who can be more litigation prone than your average professor or researcher) and proportionately less by netters steeped in net tradition?

Richard M. Gordon
<mktrmg[_at_]gsusgi2.gsu.edu> Received on Fri Dec 02 1994 - 14:24:15 GMT