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Re: mining and rights



I love Joe's term 'the principle ... of the infinite divisibility of copyright'. This is exactly the basis on which work of the Zwolle Group (www.surf.nl/copyright), and our own model copyright agreements for journal contributors (http://www.alpsp.org/htp_grantli.htm) are based. Once you see copyright as a bundle of rights which can (and, IMHO, should) be unpicked, life gets a whole lot easier!

Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
Email: sally.morris@alpsp.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 12:14 AM
Subject: Re: mining and rights

I have myself seen (and negotiated) licenses that state *how* an information resource is used, though not in the area of research journals. The principle that these licenses rested upon was the infinite divisibility of copyright. Such licenses are very common in the reference area, especially for lexical products, which often are licensed to search engine companies. The licenses stipulate that the reference/lexical data could be incorporated into the search process, but that the data could not be viewable by a human. The search world is evolving rapidly, and whether the inclusion of such databases continues to add value, I do not know. IP law requires specialists, and I am not among them.

Separating "human reading" from "machine reading" may have other implications. For one, the fair use doctrine may not apply to robots, since there is no case to be made that a robot is a student. As to what is the right or wrong way to view this situation, it all depends on whether you are buying or selling.

Joe Esposito