Re: Re[2]: Fair Use Law

[John Posada <posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM>]

Arlen...

Let's not confuse matters any more than necessary.  Don't confuse "have" with "do".

Yes, granted, if I look at a page in a browser, I end up with a copy on my 'puter.  However, isn't that the same as joining a book club and because you have a middle initial, Readers Digest (nothing personal. just first name that came to mind), ends up sending you two copies of the book.  It was out of our control just like having a cached copy would be. (yeah, I know I can eliminate the caching capability.)  However, we all know what we cannot do with the first copy.  However, that also applies to the second copy.

Therefore, just having the cached copy is not a copyright issue.  USING the cached copy is the infringement just like owning either 1 or 10 copies of a book is not copyright infringement, but using one of them wrongly is wrong.  I don't need a law to understand that...it's a no-brainer.

John


-----Original Message-----
From:   Walker, Arlen P [SMTP:Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM]
Sent:   Thursday, December 18, 1997 11:57 AM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Re[2]: Fair Use Law

      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!)

John Posada, Technical Writer (and proud of the title)
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