Julien Genestoux <[email protected]> wrote: > people who assumed that by default all the data available > via PubSubHubbub was expected to be free and accessible > by any one *for any purpose*.
Copyright law is a great deal simpler than most people seem to think... All content consumers must remember that unless there is an explicit grant of rights then copyright restrictions apply to **all** content -- no matter how, where, when or why it is accessed. The only grey area applies to copying which is facilitative to the act of reading the content. (For instance, copying of data over the web, into internal buffers of a browser, display device, cache, etc.) While the issue of such facilitative copying is not covered by much written law, it has been recognized in quite a number of court cases. (at least in the US). In the case of feeds (whether they are push or pull feeds) what this means is that the law generally permits you to copy content in order to move it towards users, re-syndicate, etc. However, you are still prohibited from republishing the data, making derivative works, etc. In other words, if you want to conform to the law, you need to pass downstream pretty much whatever you read from the original feed. The only exceptions, in the absence of explicit permissions, would be those that are permitted under copyright law -- i.e fair use, facilitative copying, etc. So, pulling data from a syndication feed (push or pull) does not, in fact, allow you to use the data for any purpose other than syndication itself unless there is an explicit grant of rights -- perhaps in the form of a Creative Commons license. Publishers should realize that just as copyright law restricts what consumers can do with others' content, it also limits publishers' rights. For instance, without some sort of prior agreement between a consumer and a publisher, the publisher can't impose restrictions on the use of content which limit consumers more than copyright law does. Remember, under copyright law, "all rights" means only "all those rights protected by copyright law" -- it does not actually mean "all rights." In general, what this means is that any "license" information inserted into published content has no effect if it is attempting to be more restrictive than copyright law. (Note: Stuff that says: "If you read this, you accept it." Is not effective...) bob wyman On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 6:13 PM, Julien Genestoux < [email protected]> wrote: > Hello everybody, > > Today, twice I've had talks with people who assumed that by default all the > data available via PubSubHubbub was expected to be free and accessible by > any one for any purpose. > I think this is a 'wrong' idea and it doesn't serve us very well, so I > wrote a blog post about it : http://blog.superfeedr.com/not-a-license/ > > I think it's awesome that so many services, like Buzz grant an almost > unlimited and full access to all their data, but I think we (and maybe > anyone advocating) should make sure that we do not give the idea that by > implementing PubSubHubbub people give away their data and any rights around > it. > > Any feedback is much appreciated! Has anyone bumped into the same > mis-understanding? or worse, had them? > > Julien >
