Naval Postgraduate School
Fall 2007
Nov 6, 2007
Gathering information from the web
Information on the web: fair game, or protected by copyright?
Can you use the <IFRAME> tag to violate copyright? Can you appropriate images?
Article I, Section 8 of the US constitution gives Congress the power:
"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"
As a result of this power, Congress created copyright and the US Copyright Office. Copyright
gives authors of "original works of authorship" the right to restrict
others from the unauthorized reproduction or use of their works
(within limits). Over the years copyright has been expanded as a
result of legislation, legal interpertation, and treaties.
Copyright is a big topic of discussion---too big for a one-hour course. In Tuesday's class we won't be discussing copyright in general. Instead we're going to look at a few specific issues:
- The framing of other websites.
- Unsolicited Links
- How copyright law affects the copyright of a collection of facts (called a compilation copyright or database copyright).
Readings
- Total News, Inc., was sued by Washington Post and several other companies for its practice of "framing" news from other organizations. Please read the complaint.
- The case was settled. Please read the Stipulation and Order of Settlement and Dismissal
- 10 Big Myths about copyright explained, by Brad Templeton. Templeton was one of the first people to offer commercial access to Usenet and had to address many Internet copyright issues. His 10 Big Myths document does an excellent job correcting many common fallacies about copyright.
- The Chilling Effects website has a letter from NetCopyrightLawSM complaining about the illegal framing of AmsihPhoto.com Do you think that the framing asserted is legal or not?
- Does Copyright Law Need to be Reformed, Pamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM, October 2007.
References
- Copyright law appears in Title 17 fo the US Code. It's long. You don't need to read it for this course.
- There is a summary of many linking and framing cases at linksandlaw.com.
- Wikipedia has a Great article on Copyright, although it quite US-centric. Be sure to read the Talk Page.
- Internet Legal Issues: Framing, Lloyd L. Rich, the Publishing Law Center. A basic article about framing issues, Rich identifies the claims against Total News as: Misappropriation; Federal Trademark Infringement and dilution; Copyright infringement; Violation of advertising laws; and Tortious interference with business relationships.
- Copyright Standards: Should standards be eligible for copyright protection, Pamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM, June 2007
- Legal Protection for Database Contents, Pamela Samuelson, Communications of ACM, December 1996.
Other References