[ExtractStream] Re: My dangerous idea.

[sharkey@a...]

> I don't know how far we want to wander in this direction on this list 
> since I imagine few, if any of us, are lawyers

Perhaps that's all the more reason that such topics be mentioned.

> One guideline I would suggest is to consider 
> how the idea of a public library would be affected by one's ideas and 
> similarly how private lending would be viewed.

As long as no additional copies are created, or, in the case that a copy
is created, the original is destroyed, then there really are no restrictions
on non-profit activities such as public/private library lending. (Prior
to the introduction of the DMCA, that is, which allows the copyright holder
to use technological means to impose such restrictions. However, in
the absence of such means, this is still legal. It's not a default
right, like the rest of the copyright restrictions.)

If you wish to purchase a copy and lend it, it's fine. If you want to
lend five copies simultaneously, you must purchase five copies. This
is how libraries work. They can't copy a work that they own and distribute
those copies in parallel to as many people that want them.

> such a law needs to be viewed with considerable reservations. In 
> particular the DMCA is a police state law for which I have nothing 
> but contempt.

It's more of a coporate state law, but, I suppose that's a fine line.

> I fully expect it to be repudiated by the Supreme Court
> when it reaches there but its path so far has been disquieting.

Agreed. This may take some time.

> Also when considering the Napster phenomenon please bear in mind that 
> there was a Home Recording Act of 1992 which could be viewed as an 
> unwise compromise reached by the copyright industry that made Napster 
> entirely legal (the view of David Boies when accepting the job of 
> counsel to Napster).

Yes, that was a very interesting legal argument, but far from a unanimous
opinion. The HRA is almost as bad as the DMCA. I'm not in favor of
any law which requires crippling of mass marketed devices to remove
functionality, nor am I in favor of arbitrary media taxes designed to
compensate for illegal copying. (This sort of thing always takes money
from the independent artists and redistributes it to the larger recording
industry. IMO, this is precisely what we don't want.)

Eric