BMJ - PKI and signinng slight confusion

[Brian Gladman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Denis Russell" <Denis.Russell@ncl.ac.uk>
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: RE: RE: BMJ - PKI and signinng slight confusion


> At 10:54 pm +0100 12/9/00, Adrian Midgley wrote:
> >...I don't buy the paper I use.  It arrives in boxes form the HA
> ...
> It doesn't seem obvious to me that whoever owns a sheet of paper
> necessarily owns whatever gets written on it, but separate ownership
> of a sheet of paper and something that is written on it is also an
> interesting concept. I hope some legally trained folk will help us
> out here...

I agree.  It is surely clear from the law suits going on about music
distribution that intellectual rights exist at a more abstract level than
the physical media involved.

It is also interesting to see a possible tussle developing between medical
professionals and their clients on which group might 'own' medical records
and medical information.  Its not obvious to me that this is easy to resolve
unless the two groups have come to an agreement covering the basis on which
the service in question is being provided.

However, it is probably more important to worry about management and control
rather than ownership per se.

    Brian