More copyright complaints

Free Republic | April 8, 2004 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

As most of you are aware, we've recently received several copyright complaints. In the last few weeks, we've received complaints from the SJ Mercury News, Independent (UK), SF Chronicle and The Boston Globe. Just a couple days ago the Post-Gazette send a cease and desist notice and yesterday I heard from the Tribune-Review.

Tonight, I got a call from Amy and there were two more registered letters at our PO Box. The McClatchy News (Sacramento Bee) and USAToday are now added to the list of publications that have complained about copyright violations.

Well, folks, the handwriting is on the wall. The complaints are now coming in faster than I can respond to them. John is currently in the process of writing programs to search out and automatically excerpt all existing threads from these sources.

I think we're gonna have to go to excerpt and link for all news sources very soon unless we have written permission on file.

[Fury]

We'll just have to paraphrase. Or how about using frames? For example, a frame in the middle with content directly from NYT, within a larger FR frame. It would take some recoding of the forum but I suspect it'd satisfy them and us.

This is interesting. Would this allow the ENTIRE article to still be placed ona FR Server, but only a section (excerpt) of the article is viewable AT A TIME? Does that satisfy Fair Use?

[Fury]

Oops. Saw Jim's comments on frames made prior.

But of course this is all done as some sort concerted effort. One need only look at the BS that occurred concerning the WHOIS record for FR. Someone most definitely made a call to complain about that...

[Nita Nupress]

That's a very informative website in regards to the history of fair use. Here's one of my favorite sites: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

BTW, how does Google get by with caching news articles? It seem to me that would be a violation also.

[Nita Nupress]

Yes, so do I. :-)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Sounds like the babies are coordinating their activities.

[sweetliberty]

"what about the possibility of FR becoming a licensed news outlet so that FR can reproduce the content in its entirety?"

"That costs money"

Of course it does. So does a LexusNexus account. So does everything else that it takes to keep this site up and running for the purpose for which it was intended. And what is the point of spending a fortune to run a site if it gets to the point where it can no longer function as it was intended to function? We just have to find a way; that's all. Jim seems to think it is a possibility. I'm sure if a lot of regular donors to FR were to up our donations by even $3-5, we could manage the added cost. I don't believe the perpetrators of this attack should be allowed to go unchallenged. In fact, I think we owe it to ourselves and to the lurkers and future FReepers to do whatever it takes to throw it right back at them while at the same time getting ourselves on more secure legal footing.

[DumpsterDiver]

...once the original article is pulled from a web site, we will not be able to go back and research...

I've had some luck in the past using the WayBack Machine.

[herzo]

Than sucking sound you hear is the "mainstream media" circling the drain. The Internet is the new source of information and that which the United Nations wants to control.

[nuconvert]

Thanks. I'm getting afraid to post anything........

[sweetliberty]

"We can continue to link to anything we want to link to."

The problem is that even with sources that don't require registration, they pull down the original links in a matter of days or weeks. Right now we have a rich source of archived information. If John creates a program that goes back and excerpts previously posted articles, then it's gone. The links to the source will no longer exist in most cases. What would be nice would be to have document hosts on the web much like image hosts. Originals could be stored on a password protected server, but the posted links would be accesible.

[Piranha]

Weegee, you make a great point. I don't know why Google, and the other sites that cache websites (there were a few mentioned above) are able to continue to do so without getting complaints of copyright violation. This could be very significant.

[Publius6961]

Not funny.

Funny.

[sweetliberty]

"It seems to me that there is an issue that might take precedence over copyright, namely historical preservation."

I'm in 100% agreement there, but then there is still the issue of a probable legal fight to establish that.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

All Your Links Are Belong To Us.

[Piranha]

Here's an article about Google's caching and the issues that it raises in copyright. I have linked to the cached version of the article

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:ep3w0rt4xy0J:news.com.com/2100-1038_3-1024234.html+google+caching+%22fair+use%22&hl=en&start=2&ie=UTF-8

[mvpel]

Just a crazy idea, reincorporate in some untouchable offshore hamlet?

The Principality of Sealand, the world's smallest soverign territory, is home to HavenCo's hosting service:

HavenCo has been providing services since May 2000 and is fully operational, offering the world's most secure managed servers in the world's only true free market environment, the Principality of Sealand.

[Polybius]

When I do register on some site that requires demograpic information, I register as a 14 year old girl.

You should register as a pre-teen (under 13) because the website is then prohibited from doing different things to your system (I think tracking cookies and the like).

The head of our I.S. Department at work introduced me to the spy-ware killer, Ad-aware 6. It comes in two flavors: the "Professional" version you have to pay for and the Standard version with less bells and whistles that you can download for free. It runs a C-Drive scan whenever you chose to do so, isolates all spyware and then asks if you want to quarantine them or delete them.

You can download it for free from Lavasoft. Follow the links to the regular version down-load page.

[Zeppo]

I was thinking of a more direct approach, to the publications who have sent takedown notices.

[sweetliberty]

"It would help them and would not be a terrible thing for FR."

Why would we want to help THEM? And yes, it WOULD be a terrible thing for FR. One of the greatest things about FR is the blessed lack of ad assaults (not to mention the ensuing SPAM that follows).

[dansangel]

On the bright side, we are seen as a threat. Good.

Bookmarked.