CLA Copyright and WWW Archiving

[Tony Barry]

Linkers

This posting that I have copied without permission highlights some
interesting problems in an interesting way. While an author/publisher might
want to control how their material is viewed/stored/changed

1. The browser makes changes and these depend on how the user has
configured it or what it might be capable of.

2. The user may not be able to comply with or know if they are complying
with a limitation on keeping copies.

3. As web "pages" with inline graphics are multiple files what happens at
the user end can differ for each one.

Any statement asserting any aspect of the copyright needs to be made
recognising the environment.

Tony

>From: "M Gillett" <mgillett@sghms.ac.uk>
>Subject: CLA Copyright and WWW Archiving
>To: rob@cla.co.uk, lis-elib@mailbase.ac.uk
>Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 10:31:39 +0100 (BST)
>X-Unsub: To leave, send text 'leave lis-elib' to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
>Reply-To: "M Gillett" <mgillett@sghms.ac.uk>
>Sender: lis-elib-request@mailbase.ac.uk
>Precedence: list
>
>
>
>[This message copyright Mark Gillett 1997, subject to licence terms and
>conditioas for a program created under the GNU General Public Licence (see
>http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).]
>          - READ ON ONLY IF YOU AGREE TO THESE LICENCE CONDITION -
>
>I am interested in the scope of the 'not altering the material in any way'
>(significant creative input asserted i.e. I changed it) and how this
>applies, as Brain says - some people use browsers which are different to
>those which might be expected.  Using LYNX I see a very different page -
>in fact my browser has changed the CLA page, removing all graphics and
>potentially some other material from your site (incidentally including all
>the copyright symbols !).  Does this mean that a licence is granted to me
>to view the material only on the basis that I use one of your approved
>browsers ?  Indeed if the licence is indeed as restrictive as you suggest,
>should you not have a page containing the licence policy at the root page
>on your site, so that people may choose to agree to the licence or not
>prior to entering the site.
>
>It is my understanding that under UK law it is unacceptable to impose
>contractual terms on an individual prior to their being informed of the
>terms, this would suggest that your first page cannot be subject to the
>licence terms that you claim to impose.
>
>What is the situation with you if an organisation corporately informs you
>that they are not prepared to enter into such an agreement - will you
>block them from your site ?
>
>
>
>I for one am unable to assure you that pages will be held in our cache for
>no longer than 30 days, I am also unable to assure you that they will be
>stored unaltered as the component nature of HTML/WWW pages means that your
>images may be purged from our site cache before the text !
>
>I would be interested in your comments.
>
>Mark Gillett
>St. Georges Hospital Medical School
>[This message copyright Mark Gillett 1997, subject to licence terms and
>conditions as for a program created under the GNU General Public Licence
>(see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).] - do we need to start going
>this far ?
>
>
>
>--RAA09285.874341912/ribosome.sghms.ac.uk--

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         Australian National University