I think I started a very interesting thread!
On this list it's clear we understand the need for copyright. We're
discussing how copyright can be applied for HTML resources.
Some technical comments.
CACHING
The CLA statement states you can download a file for up to 30 days.
There are at least two caches involved - my client cache and my
institutional server cache. If my server cache is chained to, say the
HENSA national cache, there will be another cache involved. I, as a user,
have no control over files stored in server caches. I do have some
control over my client cache (depending on the client I'm using). For
example type about:cache in the Netscape Location box. However in
practice I won't look at my cache and purge files after 30 days.
Copyright statements should also take into account off-line browsers.
I may tell my off-line browser to cache a site, and then take my machine
offline (e.g. take my portable home and save phone charges).
How do you "tell" spiders not to cache (i.e. download for purposes other
than "reading")? Note this was dicussed yesterday in a copyright thread
on a searching mailing list.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Things will be even more complicated in the future. AT the WWW6
conference I attended recently I spoke to somebody from Microsoft about
the emerging DOM (Document Object Model) specification. This spec, which
has been submitted to W3C and is being discussed by the W3C DOM Working
Group will (effectively) provide a programming interface for HTML elements
and their content. So, for example, you can dynamically change the content
of a document or HTML elements. This is useful for, say, providing a
dynamic table of contents by setting the visibility of menu sub-items on
or off on a mouse-over condition. Using a frame containing your HTML
document which sets the visibility of, say, a Yahoo advert to off, for an
accompanying frame *could* be regarded as altering the content of the
document. In this case the CLA statement which says that the material
can't be altered in any way sounds sensible.
Note that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 implementation of DOM
restricts manipulation of HTML documents to the same domain, so switching
off adverts can't be done.
I've just had another thought about offline browsers. Some of them add
buttons to the top of pages when you're viewing the web. Could this be
regarded as "altering the material in any way"? There were several papers
at WWW6 on "doing things" to documents held in proxy servers.
I also attended a session on Web Collections. This is a mechanism for
grouping sets of related web resources for purposes such as prining and
off-line reading. I wonder if copyright control should/could be applied
here (i.e. here is a relationship between a document and a copyright
statement. Whenever the document is printed, the copyright statement will
be included as a footer).
This isn't the list for an indepth technical discussion. However perhaps
this community could have some input into the protocol developments.
I'd be interested in comments.
Note I'll be shortly writing a report on WWW6, and will host an online
conference about WWW6. I'll announce the conference on this list, and all
list members will be welcome to attend. Implications of new technical
developments on copyright might be a useful topic to discuss.
Brian
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Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Phone: 01225 323943 FAX: 01225 826838
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