Re: TotalNEWS & Derivative Works

Keith Handley <kehandley[_at_]amherst.edu> wrote, in part:
>
> Here's the full text of the short paragraph I wrote:
> >
> > The key is that web browsing is just asking for data to be sent. The
> > sending of data is done by the content provider: you, CNN, whoever.
> > Thus the user cannot in normal web browsing be a copyright infringer,
> > and neither can sites that merely point to other sites.

Well, I've been confused before, and I guess I'm confused again. What's the key to web browsing? That it's asking for data to be sent? So's a magazine or newspaper subscription, and copyright laws still apply.

> I am not a lawyer, but I don't think that it looks as though I thought
> that copyright laws don't apply.

Being a lawyer isn't meaningful. I'm just confused about what the key to browsing is.

> I would say that there is not quite the analog in the paper world.
> If Newsweek inserted one of your photos in its magazine without
> permission, then one of your rights it would be taking is distribution.

I hadn't mentioned distribution; I'm concerned with the display of my photo.

> If TotalNews frames your photo (or CNN's), then it is not distributing
> it--CNN is. Here is the sequence of events when using TotalNews:

I guess I'm just as confusing as I am confused. I hadn't mentioned distribution.

> Finally, from the US Copyright code:
> >
> > To perform or display a work ''publicly'' means -

 So who is diplaying my work? If it's on the front page of the paper, without my permission, but with credit, who's displaying my work?

> So in the TotalNews case:
> Reproduction: done by CNN.
> Derivative works: not applicable.
> Distribution: done by CNN.
> Public Display: done by CNN.

I'm not buying that last sentence. Public display on a "page" done by TotalNews is no different from public display on a page by the local Herald. If I have exclusive right to control the display of my picture, I can choose to show it on my page, but not on the Herald's. Copyright laws still apply, and my right to control the display my work as I choose has been infringed if TotalNews _shows_ in on their page. I'm not concerned about a link to my work, I just don't want it _shown_ on someone esle's page.

I also see no difference in framing my picture so that you select a link in another frame and my picture shows up in an adjoining frame, and incorporating my picture in your Web page, even with credit, whether you copied the picture to your server disk or created an anchor to my picture while it's still on my disk, but shown in your Web page. "Framing" my page is no different from just including my page in yours. (I'm using "your" generically, of course.)

Phil

Phil Stripling
<philip[_at_]crl.com> Received on Thu May 22 1997 - 21:32:02 GMT