Dr Newman says ...
> Copyright legislation in the world of paper does NOT ONLY concern itself
> with rewarding traders in intellectual work. It sets out a carefully
> balanced set of rights and duties so that writers may receive some reward
> for their effort, while not destroying society through dividing it into
> separate groups of information rich and information poor.
I don't see anyone on this list arguing contrary to this - the point is
to determine the appropriate balance.
>
> There is a concerted attempt in the world of electronic publishing to
> remove all exceptions for fair use or even the idea of fairness.
Likewise I believe this is an area of concern to us all.
> They are a public service, with a duty to serve to poor (if not renounce
> all their worldly goods). They are not a private company. As libraries
> become replaced by electronic kiosks, are people going to be stopped from
> consulting the underground map in these kiosks? If Translink in Northern
> Ireland had any on-line maps of their bus and rail routes, they would
> never dream of stopping our local community networks from linking to them.
I think we should be careful in dealing with specific companies - as
I've said before we don't know the thinking (if there was any) behind
LT's request. The main point (I thought) of this discussion is it
reasonable to impose conditions on a link? This is VERY different to
denying access to info.
>
> My comments on what we should campaign about concerned firstly the
> difference between quotation practice in academic publications versus
> films and TV. As stated in articles by Tim Berners-Lee, the hypertext
> reference was explicitly modelled on the academic reference.
The hypertext link may well have been MODELLED on academic reference,
but also recall that Tim Berners-Lee was focusing on joint research,
scholarly exchange etc. He has himself many times stated that he is
surprised at ways in which the WWW has developed and is used. Because a
link is actually more than a reference, other considerations come into
play as we move outside the scholarly community.
Furthermore, (and I'm sure we can all think of examples), the ability to
link to a site has not always been used in the spirit of an academic
reference, and I can understand why this might worry some organisations
and lead to defensive positions. I would suggest that if service
providers could have their concerns regarding unlimited and uncontrolled
access addressed, we might find more information forthcoming (but
perhaps now I'm being idealistic).
When
> commercial interests started to join our club, they accepted this as part
> of the rules of the club.
This statement worries me - it is exactly this sort of phrasing that
gets right up the commercial operators collective noses! There is a
notion the academia is some type of elitist club with its own ethics etc.
Whatever legal or moral rights to information academia may have, these
rights apply to all. Any club only works when the members of the club
are sufficiently aligned in their views - the cosy little Internet of
just a few years ago is gone, the barbarians are at the gate (well
actually they are through the gate and the original occupiers being
pushed into a corner). We can either cry "not fair" and wait to be
eliminated or work towards assimilation, and this will require
compromise. Extremist positions on either side will not help.
Regards,
Colin
--
_________________________________________________
Colin K. Work
Computing Services
University of Southampton
email [log in to unmask]
tel. 01703 593090 (direct line)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|