Re[2]: Fair Use Law

["Walker, Arlen P" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      This sorta ties in with this thread. Clinton just passed a law that
      makes online piracy a felony offense.

In the interests of accuracy, let's not give the man more credit than he's
due. He signed it, Congress passed it. They are equal co-conspirators in
this; neither could have succeeded without the other's connivance.

The biggest problem with any online piracy law is that it lacks a good
definition of what constitutes a copy. You make at least two copies of
everything you view on the web -- one in your computer's memory and another
in your web browser's cache (let's add the one in video memory as well to
make three). Add to the mix that other systems will also create copies of
what you're viewing in their caches (sometimes the server, sometimes your
local firewall/proxy server) and you might be responsible for creating as
many as 5 copies of every document you view. (For that matter, most disk
drives these days have a cache as well, so there's another 2-3 copies!)

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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