discuss: statistics
Subject:
Re: statistics
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
8 Aug 2001 05:11:55 -0000
Message-Id: <20010807211845.D264@lafn.org>
On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 08:09:43AM +0200, jdd wrote:
> Le Mardi 7 Août 2001 03:57, David Merrill a écrit :
>
> >
> > The LDP's webservers are in the US, however.
>
> are you sure? (of course you are is the computer is in front of you!)
>
> I mean I received some weeks ago a message saying that ibiblio was off for
> flood in Varsovia.
>
> so I learned that ibiblio was homed in poland.
I thought it was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The development of the Internet has complicated copyright law. There
have been articles in law journals about this. But first, I don't
think that people understand how copyrighting something in the US
works.
If you submit a doc in English to the LDP, it's likely assumed that
the copyright (but not the license) is to be governed under US laws.
But US laws do not generally extend outside of the US. This defect is
corrected by the Berne Convention. It says that all countries which
have signed the Berne Convention will treat the work as if it had been
copyrighted in that country. (It's not said exactly this way though.)
So it makes little difference in which country one copyrights a work.
The copyright laws of every different country will apply to it within
that country.
There's one minor problem. Suppose a work is not eligible to be
copyrighted in one country but was eligible in another where it was
copyrighted. Then it's still not a copyrighted work in the country
where is was not eligible.
But there are other problems which arise because of the license.
Copyright laws in the US make no mention of any license and thus
licenses are independent contracts between the author and users.
So the laws of contract are different in each State of the US and may
vary like this in other countries. The first question is: where was
the contract made. It seems to me that no contract exists until
someone reads the license (if at all). The reading of this license
takes place where they live. So I think that the license is governed
by the laws of the locality where the user of the doc lives.
What are the remedies if someone violates the license? Violation of
contracts are generally a civil matter. But violations of copyright
can be a criminal offense. So if someone say produces a derived work
which is in violation of the license, one can claim that this is a
criminal matter in violation of copyright. How so? Well, copyright
doesn't allow anyone to make a derived work without permission. The
permission is contained in the license but it's not blanket permission.
So if they violate the terms of the license they are making a derived
work without permission in violation of copyright law.
So if someone violates the license and you want to enforce it, claim
that they are violating the copyright.
> who can know where is located his ISP? one know the entry point, not the
> physical location.
>
> so what about copyright? I think it should relate to the _original copy_,
> probably located on the author's computer in his country. but?
>
> jdd
> --
David Lawyer
