Re: How can the Bettmann Archive possibly work (or be legal) ?

On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, Esoteric Resources Incorporated wrote:
>
> Remember last week's news about Bill Gates buying the Bettmann Archive -
> a large collestion of drawings, photos, etc. ?

[snip]

Mark Lemley also had a number of good points on this thread too:
>
> Several people have made this same point, and it seems right to me. But
> one question lingers . . . why exactly does Bill Gates want to own this
> archive? Maybe it is because he can't think of anything else he hasn't
> already bought. If so, fine.
>
> But it seems more likely to me that Gates intends to digitize these
> works and, having done so, try to exert some control not just over the
> originals, but over the digitized versions as well. That seems more
> problematic from a copyright standpoint. Right? Or is there some claim
> to copyright residing in the "creative" work of running the art through
> a scanner?
>
> Even if copyright won't work, perhaps Gates can try to protect his
> digitized copies with some sort of mass-market contract (say, a
> shrinkwrap license?). But that protection doesn't seem terribly robust,
> even if we assume it is legal. All it takes is one buyer to breach the
> contract and anonymously post the material onto the Internet, and soon
> everyone can have free copies of the art. The poster may be liable
> for breach of contract, if she can be found, but presumably everyone
> else is free to copy the digitized work at that point.

some time back i saw an article in a mainstream magazine to the effect that Gates and/or?? Microsoft has been buying the "electronic rights" to much of the world's art collections. I have no idea exactly *what* this means or why they would buy these rights since PD art can be scanned from pre-1920 sources anyway.

Maybe Gates/Microsoft have lobbyists in the wings ready to "influence" ;-) the enevitable changes in laws in the coming future????

is this the basis of the gates/vatican rumour? i.e. Did he approach the Vatican about purchasing the electronic rights to their art works?

Bill Gates must have something non-obvious "up his sleeve" because on the surface based on existing law it just does not make much sense to me either.

Charles Keller (non-lawyer)
<keller[_at_]Ra.msstate.edu> Received on Tue Oct 24 1995 - 23:25:52 GMT