copyright outdated (Re: US to Ease Crypto Export)

[Phillip Temple]

At 10:53 AM 7/8/98 +0100, you wrote:
>
>It is my view that existing copyright law is becoming outdated.  The
>internets possibilities for publishing are making this increasingly
>obvious.

True.

>Personally I prefer people to post the whole article rather than give
>a reference.  It saves me having to go track down the text, which
>often times disappears after a few months.

Sometimes the author prefers to retain control over the text, so
that they may amend it at will (or supress it, as we've seen
recently ;-)). Our preferences aren't always the most important
issue.

>If the referred text is online also I really can't see how the
>copyright holder is harmed -- if it is on their web page with open
>access anyway.

Perhaps their livelihood depends on publishing articles on a page
that contains advertising (probably not in this instance, but as an
example).

>Personally I couldn't really care if the article was scanned from some
>paper journal, it adds to convenience to have the article online if
>the articles publishers are still publishing on dead trees.

They will all be dragged kicking and screaming into this century
eventually.

>So what are you going to do about it anyway: the net is for most
>purposes censorship proof, and people can publish whatever they want.
>I think it is best to adjust to reality, and live with it.

This is such a short-term view. As our society shifts, we have to
develop new rules to take on board the changes and make sure those
shifts have a *positive* influence on our society.

>Keep it up JYA!
>
>One has to wonder who stands to gain from WIPO also; I somehow doubt
>that it is the individual.  I suspect it is more to do with media
>empires trying to stuff the genie back into the bottle.

There is that on the one hand, but on the other hand we want to try to
protects the individuals, such as artists and authors, and their
right to be rewarded for their work.

>Crypto controls are somewhat similar in the futile attempted stuffing
>of genies back into bottle area.

There the similarity ends. I haven't investigated WIPO, so can't
comment on that, but allowing people privacy and security when
communicating with others isn't the same as telling people that they
can do whatever they like.

Note: I'm not having a go at you Adam, but just looking at the
wider implications of your "what the hell" attitude. The Internet
survives on self-regulation, and if the long-term effects are
damaging then 'a solution' will be imposed. This solution would
probably not be as good as something we could come up with ourselves.

Phillip.