On Wed, 7 May 1997, Leo Smith <barter[_at_]ntplx.net> wrote:
>
> The operational features of a Web Browser permit and even require a
> copyright infringement every time that a copyrighted web site is
> visited. In the computer hard drive, a directory is set up called
> TEMPORARY INTERNET. When the user comes upon the web page, each of
> the HTML, GIF and JPG files created by the copyright holder are
> saved in the TEMPORARY INTERNET directory of the hard drive.
>
[snip]
>
> The copy retained on the hard drive automatically looks the same,
> feels the same, smells the same and IS the same as the copy
> resulting from storing a *COPIED* file in a user selected
> directory. How is retaining an unauthorized permanent copy of
> copyrighted work in the TEMPORARY INTERNET directory not an
> infringement?
A few points. First, I've never heard of anything called "TEMPORARY INTERNET," but I'll assume for this discussion that this is the disk cache for your browser. Second, I don't know what every browser does, but I'll assume that each of them have some kind of disk caching system and further assume that they actually keep the files intact that were downloaded, although the naming of those files will follow different conventions. Finally, I'll assume that enough has been copied to infringe on someone's right of reproduction.
I would quarrel with the word "require." I am not required to disk cache. Netscape, at least, permits me to set the upper limit of disk space for its cache. If I set it to 0, there won't be any files cached on the hard drive. However, even if I did that, the operating system (in this case DOS/Windows) has its own disk cache which works for the entire system, and certainly parts of the files are kept in its cache. There, too, I don't have to use disk caching in my system, but I don't know of too many people who don't use cache. Performance would suffer unduly. Significant differences between the operating system caches that I'm familiar with and browser cache are that the former doesn't store it in a readily available file system, and the cache doesn't stick around for as long. In any event, it probably sticks around long enough to satisfy the Copyright Act, but I'll let that go.
I think the nub of the matter is that when you access a web site, you are already making a copy of what is there in theoretical violation of any copyright the web page owner may have. By his conduct, he has given you permission to copy his material. How far that implied consent goes could be the topic of debate, but making copies in memory or on your hard drive to simply improve performance is probably not farther than the copyright owner envisions.
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