On 6 Jun 2005, GTa3411203@aol.com wrote:
I have been following this discussion and have not yet seen anyone raise a question relating to the legality of using this approach to capture web pages in support of academic research, in particular those web pages that are clearly identified as being copyrighted. Are you contacting the owner of the site to ask permission to create a copy of their documents for current and future use? If not, how are you justifying using this approach to duplicating the data? Fair use laws? How are you using the data after it has been captured? Are you
You needn't worry too much about whether pages are "clearly identified" as copyrighted -- you can pretty well assume that they are all copyrighted. In the United States, fair use may privelege storage of the pages for analysis. Since fair use does not exist elsewhere, researchers may have to rely on other user priveleges or exemptions (e.g., educational or research exemptions under fair dealing) which will vary country to country. Alternatively, there is at least an implied license to view the pages by virtue of their being publicly accessible. This may extend to some types of research storage, since the nature of the technology is that the pages will be stored anyway (in cache, in RAM, and so on). Implied license arguments are always tricky, since the terms are by definition unwritten, but there is at least a viable argument along these lines. This is also discussed in the forthcoming Allen, Burk & Davis paper that I mentioned in my previous post, which Gove Allen presented at the Toronto meeting. Dan L. Burk Visiting Professor Cornell Law School Myron Taylor Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 USA Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor University of Minnesota Law School 229 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA *************************************** Voice: 612-626-8726 Fax: 612-625-2011