[cc-community] FYI: comment by Eric S Raymond on CC

Peter Brink peter.brink at brinkdata.se
Thu Feb 14 09:39:09 EST 2008


Andrew Rens skrev:
>>
>>> drew Roberts skrev:
>>>> If a web site is an ARR site, a person on the job at a for profit
>>>> corporation can browse the site in the course of his work. Browse an
>> NC
>>>> site and you are violating the site copyright just by browsing it.
>>> ???
>>> Copyright law doesn't restrict the reading or viewing of a published
>>> work.
>> Funny no one brought up that argument in rebuttal when I asked the
>> question on
>> the lists before. (Again, if memory serves.)
>>
> 
> The issue is a little more nuanced than that IMO.
> 
[snip]

As far as the EU goes the matter has been settled. The so called Infosec 
directive (Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of 
copyright and related rights in the information society) states in 
article 5.1 that:

"Temporary acts of reproduction referred to in Article 2, which are 
transient or incidental [and] an integral and essential part of a 
technological process and whose sole purpose is to enable:

(a) a transmission in a network between third parties by an intermediary, or

(b) a lawful use

of a work or other subject-matter to be made, and which have no 
independent economic significance, shall be exempted from the 
reproduction right provided for in Article 2."
(see http://www.wipo.int/clea/docs_new/en/eu/eu049en.html#JD_b5)

That is the copyright holder doesn't control such temporary copies that 
may be created in a computer when a user reads a webpage.

/Peter Brink


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