Re: TotalNEWS & Derivative Works

Dan Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Why does putting original material on the Web cause the waiver of
> > otherwise valid copyright claims for public display and performance.
>
> Because the web functions by copying, distributing, performing, and
> displaying the work. There is no other reason for the work to be
> there.

Wow. Wow. Where is this reason written down or otherwise made available for public consumption? I sure missed this one. I'd appreciate being able to go to that link.

> > Giving viewners a license to view my work in the privacy of their
> > homes, like renting a movie at the local rental store, is not a
> > license to sell tickets and have a public showing.
>
> No. But it is clearly a license to view the work in their homes,
> isn't it? (Which, BTW, is almost certainly a public performance
> and/or display.)

Taken from the copyright act:

To perform or display a work "publicly" means--

    (1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any     place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal     circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or     (2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of     the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by     means of any device or process, whether the members of the public     capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the     same place or in separate places and at the same time or at     different times.

I'm not seeing how viewing a rented film in the privacy of my home is almost certainly a public performance.

SNIP my query about why I have to have password protection on the Web  

> I can read physical media without making a copy

Oh, really? What is it in physical media that you read? One of several thousand copies of a printed book or magazine. One of _those_ copies? Is it a copy made by the publisher and sold through bookstores or perhaps purchased by a library and checked out by a reader? One of those copies? In either event, a legitimate, hard or softbound copy of the book? Or the glossy magazine printed by the publisher?

> (except for the copy in carbon-based memory, which we don't count).
> I can't do that in this medium. The work MUST be copied and displayed
> if it is accessed via the web. If you want to put some kind of
> restrictions on those copies and displays, fine, but you will have to
> tell me ahead of time.

The novel must be copied and distributed if it is accessed by a reader. If the publisher wants to put some kind of restriction on those copies, it puts a copyright notice in the book saying that I can't make copies on the scanner and distribute the book on the Web. The publisher doesn't have to passord protect the book or print it in hard to see colors to give me further notice that it really means the work is copyrighted.

> I will try again.

SNIP link description

> This is entirely different than if TotalNews took CNN's content
> and displayed it from their server. Then you would be getting

                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We disagree here, as usual. And we're back to copies. Explain to me how the content of CNN's page is displayed on my computer. I don't worry about the copy, just the display.

> TotalNews also delivers a frame to your machine, which your browser
> displays. You can get rid of it if you wish. CNN can also intruct
> your machine NOT to display its content together with the frame. Or
> it can deny you access altogether.

Ah, there's the answer to the previous question about display. CNN's page is displayed within the Web page of TotalNews, as part of the TotalNews content.  

> Clear now?

Yes -- TotalNews has violated the copyright of CNN; you've made it crystal clear.

> > What is the purpose of "Copyright 1997 Philip Stripling"? I would
> > have thought the law was clear that this was a signal.
>
> It is a signal that the material is copyrighted. So what? I am
> surrounded by copyrighted material. Some of it I am permitted to
> reproduce and display, some of it I am not. The copyright notice
> tells me nothing about the terms under which I can use the material.

You've wowed me again. Wow.

Phil Stripling
philip[_at_]crl.com Received on Sat Jun 07 1997 - 16:58:35 GMT