Re: HR 354 Antipiracy Bill

On Thu, 26 Aug 1999, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> [...]
> They are cheap to copy. Information technology thus puts the
> initial publisher's development capital at considerable risk.
> The cheapness factor may extend to other areas of unauthorized
> copies, sending inferior productions to compete at low prices
> with originals that are well-made and guaranteed by brand names
> and service.

Exactly this argument, which I hear often in favour of copyright protection, is crippled, and not very wise to use, because it can be interpreted as an argument against copyright. If "pirates" would only produce inferior products, customers will surely go for the original, and there would be no need of copyrights -- sad fact is, they often can produce very nice copies, even more so if their trade is legal, as it still is for databases outside the E.U.

Apart from this, I have mixed thoughs about database protection, because they can lead to monopolies on information that should be publicly available, especially in the legal field -- were governments have miserably failed to keep records of the very laws and jurisprudence citizens are considered and required to know. Often there is just no other way of getting these except by consulting some private firms' databases.

The other issue of course is, how to prove copying? The age old trick is to insert a few fake entries into the database...

Jeroen

Jeroen Hellingman
<jehe[_at_]kabelfoon.nl> Received on Fri Aug 27 1999 - 20:20:16 GMT