Licence to view source code.

Web pages are copyright works, provided that they are original. To view such web pages requires copies to be made (from the server into various caches, then onto the screen). Such copies are, in UK law at least, copies requiring the consent of the copyright holder. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that by posting the pages on the server and publicising the URL the copyright holder has granted an implied licence to surfers to make the copies necessary to view the pages. UK courts tend to limit implied licences to the narrowest possible construction.

My questions:
(a) would the above analysis apply in the US? If not what doctrines

    apply?
(b) would the above analysis apply in other jurisdictions (e.g. Civil

    Code droit d'auteur jurisdictions)? If not what doctrines apply?
(c) does the implied licence (or equivalent doctrine) extend to:

    i) viewing the document source code?     ii) printing the document?

[My answer to (c) i) and ii) in the UK would be 'probably not' but I'd be interested in others' opinions]

Edward Barrow
<edward[_at_]plato32.demon.co.uk> Received on Mon Apr 28 1997 - 23:43:19 GMT