[asterisk-biz] Copyright (was: Re: Ribbit.com ?)

Tue Dec 18 16:27:28 CST 2007

On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 16:56 -0500, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> 	Actually, the exception to copyright teachers photocopying copyrighted
> passages is not because it's "noncommercial" (isn't a private university
> "commercial"?) Copyright (in the US) is itself an exception to our right
> to press freedom. Copyright is justified (in the Constitution itself) on
> the basis of "to promote science and the useful arts". US law describes
> "fair use" cases where the copyright exception to press freedom does not
> constrain copying, which includes "personal use".
> 
If you want to go down that road, you dont have a right to free press,
the constitution places limits on governments, not private
people/entities.  A right to free press would mean that you could print
something on my printer without my consent.  All the constitution does
is grant certain powers to the federal government, and places
restrictions on them at the same time.  Much of it has been ignored,
however they freak if you ignore the parts that grant them power :)

I do know that one of the 4 is the commerical use of the work.  I just
dont recall offhand what the other 2 criteria are.  They are not rules
by themselves but guidelines for a judge to determine if infringement
actually occured.

With that said the entire copyright regime is based in law which is an
unratified amendment to the first amendment, but then so is censorship
of obscene materials, truth in advertising laws, inability to yell
'fire' in a crowded theater if there is no fire (although you can yell
'I smell smoke' and your friend can yell 'so do I' then you proceed
running and screaming out the fire exit).

> 	Teachers straddle the line, because their "personal use" in making
> copies rather than buying them isn't really personal when other persons
> are using the copies. But the publishers have long recognized that their
> copyright exception would piss off teachers who are a great market for
> them, so they allow it.
> 

I stand corrected on this issue, however it seems we both are wrong :)
The Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-for-Profit
Educational Institutions (hereinafter "CLASSROOM GUIDELINES"), contained
in HOUSE REPORT at 68-74, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5681-88. have
an exemption.  Any for profit institution does not have the same
exemption.  This also covers copying not only by, but also for teachers.
While this is somewhat dated it was in effect in Sept 1998 when the
document referencing it was published (final report to the commissioner
on the conclusion of the conference on fair use).

Although there are fair use exemptions to copyright which do allow you
to take excerpts for specific uses.  For example a movie critic can take
excerpts of the movie they are reviewing, however they cant take the
entire thing.  

There is fair use stuff relating to library usage as well, which has
some quirks.  

> 	They did appear to draw the line, though, with the "Kinko's rule",
> which prohibits anyone but the owner of the book to photocopy it. So a
That has been taken so far, mostly out of fear of lawsuits that if you
take pictures that are of sufficient quality most places will not
duplicate the photo (or print a digital photo to print form) without
proof that you own the image.  How do you prove that you own the image
that was taken with your own camera?

> I expect teachers will no longer get away with any copying sometime soon.
see above, its likely they will be able to so long as its
not-for-profit :)

As for the DRM stuff you mentioned the DMCA (or the UK equiv and if not
now soon the EU equiv) protects DRM methods even if they are very weak.
In general you arent allowed to publish anything that removes it.  They
place the burden on the people who would remove it rather than placing
the burden to, if they wanted, create something that is technically
sound.  There is a patented rot-9 "encryption" system for NOAA raster
charts, to break that system violates the DMCA as well as potentially
the patent stuff.  Insanity.

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!