Re: Reporter faked the news.

["Charles Oppenheim" <C.Oppenheim@lboro.ac.uk>]

Surely anyone who owns copyright in a work has the right to destroy that
copyright work.  They don't owe it to society to maintain it.  There have
been many cases where famous literary figures have destroyed their own
drafts or personal notes, or have requested that such documents be
destroyed on their death.  I shudder to think how one can introduce, let
alone police a law that required that (say) everything I ever wrote must
never be destroyed.


Professor Charles Oppenheim
Department of Information Science
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leics LE11 3TU
01509-223065
(fax) 01509-223053

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>
To: "'Joseph J. Esposito '" <espositoj@worldnet.att.net>;
<liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 11:41 AM
Subject: RE: Reporter faked the news.

> Sure, its their "property" but they only hold that right as granted to
> them for the public good. I respectfully disagree with Joe Esposito.
> Having had a few "words" with him in other forums, I appreciate his
> insight and knowledge. I do not believe they have the right to expunge the
> public record. They may have it legally. That is a glaring deficiency in
> the Supreme Court and Congressional reasoning.
>
> As heritage it is not theirs to do with as they please.
>
> We can lose more of our heritage in the electronic enivronment than has
> ever been lost before.
>
> Part of what we must do as a society is figure out how to preserve the
> electronic heritage.
>
> Corrupting the historical record because you own it, because you can, is
> deeply destructive.
>
> Civilization depends on the historic record. That is one of the few deeply
> held beliefs I have about this profession we all take part in. It is how
> our heritage is passed from one generation to the next. The whims and
> vagaries of copyright ownership or license cannot be permitted to wipe the
> record clean.
>
> Chuck Hamaker.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph J. Esposito
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Sent: 5/12/03 5:28 PM
> Subject: Re: Reporter faked the news.
>
> I wish to make the unpopular point that what the NY Times does with its
> archive is its own business.  I have no idea what they intend to do (the
> pompous analysis on their wayward reporter in today's paper doesn't really
> fill one with hope), but it is theirs to do with as they please.  They
> cannot, legally or practically, recall the hardcopies of past issues, but
> their electronic archive is their property.  If it were mine to deal with,
> I wouldn't expunge it (I would annotate it), but it is not mine (alas!).
>
> Joe Esposito