In a message dated 1/15/2009 6:46:41 PM Pacific Standard Time, geniice@gmail.com writes:
Since under US law sweat of the brow does not give something copyright protection if your scans are publicly available it is rather hard to get people to pay anything for them.>>
----------------------------------- You know perfectly well this is a "theory" of the law and the case law is not clear.
And I hope you realize the chilling effect it gives to state that something like Google Books has no protection for their out-of-copyright scans. That Microsoft or whoever, can simply copy all of that material onto their own servers and thumb their noses at Google.
That is what you're saying. That theory would effectively end anyone attempting to upload PD anything of significant value.
Sure people will upload little dribs and drabs but we'll not be getting thousands of pages of census, and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, maps, etc, since anyone like yourself can just copy the entire contents, rehost them, and place your own ads on your own server and make money off doing virtually nothing.
This is what you want to happen on the internet? This sounds like a good thing to you?
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=http... cemailfooterNO62)
2009/1/16 WJhonson@aol.com:
You know perfectly well this is a "theory" of the law and the case law is not clear.
Depends where you are.
And I hope you realize the chilling effect it gives to state that something like Google Books has no protection for their out-of-copyright scans. That Microsoft or whoever, can simply copy all of that material onto their own servers and thumb their noses at Google.
Sure. Would take them forever though.
That is what you're saying. That theory would effectively end anyone attempting to upload PD anything of significant value.
Not really. Just because you have the content doesn't mean you are equal.
Sure people will upload little dribs and drabs but we'll not be getting thousands of pages of census, and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, maps, etc, since anyone like yourself can just copy the entire contents, rehost them, and place your own ads on your own server and make money off doing virtually nothing.
This is what you want to happen on the internet? This sounds like a good thing to you?
Your problem is that you are forgetting a number of factors. First there is the issue of first mover advantage. People get used to google books before Microsoft has a chance to compete. Second there is the issue of presentation. Microsoft can do all the mirroring they like won't mean they can match Google's software. Lots of was to add value with software.
Frequently the design of the software can make large scale harvesting a near impossibility. Throw in some watermarking and mirroring your stuff seems rather unattractive. Sure wikipedia might be prepared to remove the watermark (sometimes for example only one image on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour has had the AWM watermark removed) but most people won't and those that do won't be able to on a large scale.
You mention census stuff but that is mostly a government thing.
Against that you have to consider that granting copyright in such cases effectively allows someone who can limit the physical access to the document to enjoy all the benefits of copyright even though they didn't create it.
Sometimes the access control doesn't mean much. New popular edition maps are cheap. So acquiring them to scan does not present a major problem. Older less mass produced maps? 10K+. In effect you prevent large parts of the public domain ever being meaningfully PD.