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Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 15:47:01 -0800 (PST) From: risks@csl.sri.com Subject: RISKS DIGEST 18.75
RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Friday 10 January 1997 Volume 18 : Issue 75
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Date: Tue, 7 Jan 97 15:08:14 -0700
From: Tim Slagle
I was looking through the logs of our HTTP server and saw a large block of accesses from widener.archive.org. It looked like they were sequentially downloading each page on our server, but I didn't recognize the address as being one of usual search services.
I checked out their web site (www.archive.org) and it looks like they are systematically making and storing copies of everything the can access over the Internet. Their pages talk about what a great research tool their database will be for future 'net historians, but also says that it will be a treasure-trove for marketers and entrepreneurs.
I didn't find a discussion of their position on the copyright issues their project brings up, but I doubt that whole-scale copying of entire sites without any human intervention or commentary is 'fair use', especially considering the American Geophysical Union v. Texaco case (RISKS 16.68). At more than 1 TB of text and images copied off of the 'net (and 100GB more each week), they could have the largest archive of violated copyrights in the world.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt (that they aren't maliciously copying other people's work for profit), a risk is that one's enthusiasm for a new medium or technology can blind one to the existing legal guidelines that apply to one's project. I don't really have the interest or resources to pursue an infringement suit, but I bet someone else (like an artist, publisher, or software company) will, especially if the Internet Archive starts allowing access to their data.
Another risk for people with Web pages is that every rant or embarrassing picture that you publish on the Web (and later think better of and remove) could now be accessed by future generations without your control. It could be argued that posting to Usenet implies a certain loss of rights to control the fate of your message, given the nature of Usenet distribution. I wouldn't think the same is true for Web pages (but I have no qualifications in IP law).
Tim Slagle, slagle@colorado.edu, http://optics.colorado.edu/~slagle
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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 18.75
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