> From: Paul Ginsparg 505-667-7353 <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 2 May 97 19:54:31 -0600
>
> 4. DIGITAL AGENDA: BATTLE SHIFTING FROM TREATY TO LEGISLATION?
> Last week the NRC released its report, "Bits of Power: Issues in
> Global Access to Scientific Data" (the "Berry Report"), portions
> of which had been circulated in advance to combat an attempt to
> impose restrictions by treaty (WN 20 Dec 96). With the treaty
> now apparently comatose, word is out that the database industry
> has assembled a war chest to push for a legislative remedy. Back
> when the database treaty was put on the table, Carlos Morehead
> (R-CA)introduced H.R.3531 with similar provisions. His bill went
> nowhere, but it's expected to be reintroduced in a more sanitized
> form with some sort of fair-use provision. Librarians argue that
> legislation should be held to a higher standard: Section 8 of the
> U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to grant copyrights
> only "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."
Do they know what and whom this "protective" legislation is FOR? Would
they not be shocked if it turned out that "copyright protection" is
being provided for authors who don't want it?
There is absolutely no way to sort this out unless a clear distinction
is made between (1) the COMMON-CAUSE condition, where authors and
publishers are both on the same side, wanting to protect their product
against theft, and (2) the CONFLICTING-CAUSE condition, where the
publishers want to "protect" the product from theft and the authors do
not.
Equally important is another distinction that is being blurred in this
blinkered rush to provide for copyright "protection" on the paper and
software model: the distinction between (a) THEFT OF TEXT and (b) THEFT
OF AUTHORSHIP. So authors are being led to believe that they must
support (a) if they want (b), which is utter nonsense.
There's no question but that my next polemical piece will have to be
about getting copyright right in the learned research community's small
niche within the overall ecology of cyberspace.
Stevan Harnad [log in to unmask]
Professor of Psychology [log in to unmask]
Director, phone: +44 1703 592582
Cognitive Sciences Centre fax: +44 1703 594597
Department of Psychology http://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
University of Southampton http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
Highfield, Southampton ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM ftp://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/harnad/
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