"Gervase Markham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > In the US, the UK, and doubtless many other jurisdictions, this is
> > > completely wrong. The _law_ defines what is fair use, not the content
> > > provider.
> > >
> > The law may well determine limits on what is fair use, but surely it
doesn't
> > go so far as to specify all of the details of, e.g. license agreements
for
> > software, and it can not mandate that an author make his work available
for
> > free. All I am suggesting here is that if an author wants the best
> > copyright protection I can provide, then he can have it,
>
> You are providing copy protection, not copyright protection. Copyright
> protection is the legal position which states what people are not allowed
> to do with what you have created. Copy protection is a method used by
> content authors to make it harder for people to violate copyright.
> However, it is probably technically illegal for them to do so in a way
> which conflicts with the fair use provisions of the country they are
> operating in.
>
> If you make your work available and copyright it (as happens automatically
> when you make it available) then people are allowed to use it under "fair
> use". You can't stop them (well, not legally.) And to try and stop them
> technologically is very wrong (see the DVD case.)
>
Actually, you may want to take a look at this article on both Canadian and
International copyright law by a Canadian lawyer (relevant here because I'd
be working in Canada).
http://www.ampksoft.ca/compoly.htm
It would appear that what I propose doing is both morally and legally sound,
and a legitimate endeavour to protect copyrighted material. The article
makes it clear that "fair use' is not a right granted by either existing
legislation or treaty but rather that it is an occassionally successful
defense of copyright infringement. In other words, regardless of how an
author makes his materials available, he does not have an obligation to make
any kind of provision of "fair use," although practically he does indeed
need to provide some mechanism to access his materials if he wants to have a
hope of making a living from the materials he produces. Neither Canadian
nor international law imposes such an obligation on those who own
intellectual property.
Cheers,
Ted
