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

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

From: Rick Anderson <rick_anderson@uncg.edu>
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: RE: A thought about H.R. 2281 - Anti circumvention
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 08:24:08 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)


Terry says:

> The problem I see with your analogy is that you're assuming that the one 
> who erects the barrier is the "owner" of the content.  

Rick says:

That's true.  In the case of third-party distribution, the case would be
much more complicated.  And I would guess that third-party distribution
constitutes the great majority of online info transactions, actually. 

> With digital 
> content, that presumption is often not the case.  For example, the content 
> of a database may be in the public domain, or rights beyond first 
> publication of a particular article may belong to the author although the 
> barrier is erected by the publisher.  The bundle of rights covered by 
> copyright law is not at all similar to rights to possession of physical 
> items, which transfer wholly from possessor to possessor regardless of 
> whether the transfer is by sale, license, rental, or gift.  Rights to 
> intellectual property can be chopped up in numerous ways, and reserved or 
> transferred in whole or in part.  Anti-circumvention measures can therefore 
> give the implementer control of content to which he/she has no legal right, 
> and indeed, control over content that belongs to the public at large.

Okay, I think I see the basic problem now.  It's not so much with an
information creator/owner's right to protect his/her own property, but
with the right of a third party to protect an otherwise uncopyrightable
collection of public information by means of legally-enforceable barriers. 
Right? 

But that still doesn't really address my original question, which I'll
rephrase: doesn't someone who *really genuinely does own the information*
have the right to protect it in a meaningful way?  (And my assumption is
that copyright law itself does not, in fact, offer meaningful protection
in the digital or online environment.)  Maybe we need something like H.R.
2281 written specifically to protect owners, rather than distributors, of
copyrighted works. 

----------------------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
1000 Spring Garden St.
Greensboro, NC 27402-6175
PH (336) 334-5281
FX (336) 334-5399
rick_anderson@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders

"A wise man knows that all gold is fool's gold.
The irony is that such knowledge rarely comes
cheap."
                    -- Anon.