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RE: A thought about H.R. 2281 - Anti circumvention 

Laurel Jamtgaard makes some very good points in her posting, I think.  But
this one leads me to another question, or maybe just a clearer framing of
what's been bothering me all along about this issue: 

> I think of H.R. 2281's 1201(a)(1) anti-circumvention lanugage as a
> "traveling law of trespass" - the information provider is given the right
> to protect the information product it distributes in an analogous way to
> protecting a house!  But with a house, there are even exceptions to the
> law of trespass for reasons of necessity. 2281 doesn't provide such
> exceptions.

If I had written a bunch of books and were keeping them in my house, and
someone broke in and made fair use of the content of those books and then
left without bothering any of my other property, we'd all agree that that
person was acting illegally.  I own the house and people aren't generally
allowed in it without my permission, whether or not they intend to do me
any harm.  Now obviously, an online presence isn't the same thing as a
physical house and doesn't enjoy the same legal protections.  But I think
that's the nut of the issue: *should* one's cyber-property enjoy any of
the same protections as those enjoyed by one's real property?  If I've
paid for a "place" on the web, ought I to be able to protect it from
"invasion"?  I think we all agree that it's okay to run a web-based
business, which means that we think it's okay for people to exercise some
degree of proprietary control over their cyber-property.  But how far
should it go?  We agree that it's okay to put password protections in
place, but we apparently don't think it's okay to give those protections
themselves legal protection.  H.R. 2281 will make perfect sense to anyone
who sees a web site as a piece of real estate; it will be opposed by
anyone who thinks that cyberspace isn't directly analogous to physical
space and shouldn't be governed the same way.  I'm still not completely
sure what I think. 

----------------------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
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rick_anderson@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders

"My music is not modern; it is only badly played."
                  -- Arnold Schoenberg


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