Re: copyright and natural law?

On Tue, 15 Sep 1998, Moritz Roettinger <moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be> wrote:
>
> Joseph P. Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:
> >
> > The court decision _Wheaton and Donaldson v. Peters and Grigg_
> > (8 Peters 591) has a lengthy argument by the lawyers for Wheaton
> > and Donaldson precisely on the same topic. But, the Supreme Court
> > thought otherwise.
> >
> > Justice M'Lean in _Wheaton and Donaldson v. Peters and Grigg_ (8 Peters
> > 591) wrote on page 660-661:
>
> What is the date of this decision?

January Term, 1834. I have not seen any exact date.

> > P.S. For whatever it's worth, I have a copy of the above court
> > decision on-line but I have to go through three more steps (make
> > corrections, final proofread, and modify for web page) before
> > I can put it on my web site. If anyone is ever interested in
> > unfinished copy of the decision, send me a private e-mail and
> > specify whether you want it in the HTML format or just plain
> > ASCII format. This offer is limited only to those who are in
> > the U.S. and live in the same country (that is, residents of U.S.).
>
> Why this restriction? I thought this is a world wide discussion list?
> Are there any frontiers in cyberspace?

What is public domain in the U.S. jurisdiction may not be public domain in other countries' jurisdictions. Since I have not studied laws in more than 180 countries in the world, I have to be very cautious in sending a public domain material to anyone outside of the U.S. I think that it is going to be very complicated if I start to research on this topic.

(A good example of the danger of being ignorance of the laws: Last month, few people discussed on the World War II extensions as passed in Italy. If I do not know about these extensions and I send a public domain material to someone in Italy where it is still protected by copyright, I will be in trouble.)

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Thu Sep 17 1998 - 00:26:25 GMT