Re: How can the Bettmann Arc

> [W]hy should Gates worry about a little leakage [due to copying]
> when what he is selling is comprehensiveness and convenience, but
> images. Copyright is almost wholly irrevelant to the whole operation.
> Buford C. Terrell

Whether or not Gates *should* worry about such leakage (and I agree that he need not worry that it will render his product unprofitable), I'd be surprised if Gates did *not* worry about such leakage. Why? Because he's Gates! That is, because he has mastered the fine art of leveraging power in one market to win power in other, related markets, and will probably apply that art here as elsewhere.

I thus assume that his CD containing images in the public domain will come with a shrinkwrap license designed to wring every last possible cent out of his thin copyright. The very fact that (as Buford accurately predicts) few people will care about using the images without using the CD will only embolden Gates to stretch his copyright into questionable territory. Few people will violate the license, and probably nobody will contest it. My concerns about preemption thus remain, admittedly, academic. (But I *am* an academic, after all!)

Tom W. Bell
bell[_at_]odo.law.udayton.edu
Program in Law and Technology
Univ. of Dayton School of Law

PGP key available upon request

PGP key fingerprint: 78 06 76 AC 32 38 A6 4C B3 81 F4 1E 2E 27 AC 71 Received on Mon Oct 30 1995 - 20:55:40 GMT