From: Brian Pearce (bpearce_at_cloud9.net)
Date: Sat May 01 2004 - 21:21:18 PDT
> Part Two: 1984 is NOT yet available as Public Domain in the USA or
> Europe. HOWEVER, the Fair Use act does specify that you CAN make a copy
> of a work that you own (i.e. if you went to Barnes and Noble and bought
> a copy of 1984), then you would be well within your rights to have a
> copy on your Newton, which goes the same for any other
> book/magazine/ect.
From what I've been reading, the "Fair Use" provision says only that
*portions* of a work may be copied; trouble is, the law is
intentionally vague on the question of how much is too much.
On the other hand, there's this, one of the "four factors" taken into
consideration <http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/highered.htm>:
"Effect on the market is perhaps even more complicated than the other
three factors. Some courts also have called it the most important
factor, although such rhetoric is often difficult to validate. This
factor means fundamentally that if you make a use for which a purchase
of an original theoretically should have occurred—regardless of your
personal willingness or ability to pay for such purchase—then this
factor may weigh against fair use. "Effect" is closely linked to
"purpose." If your purpose is research or scholarship, market effect
may be difficult to prove. If your purpose is commercial, then adverse
market effect is often presumed. Occasional quotations or photocopies
may have no adverse market effects, but reproductions of software and
videotapes can make direct inroads on the potential markets for those
works."
So theoretically, if you're buying a copy of the book to begin with you
cancel out any adverse effect.
(I'll bet, though, that while the law does not *specifically* preculde
a digital copy, it wouldn't look too kindly on it, either.)
BRIAN/bpearce_at_cloud9.net
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu May 06 2004 - 13:39:32 PDT