- From: Graham Klyne <gk@ninebynine.org>
- Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 13:07:35 +0000
- To: RDF interest group <www-rdf-interest@w3.org>
Eek! [[ # "Hands Off! That Fact Is Mine" Wired News (03/03/04); Zetter, Kim The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act, which is expected to be reviewed by the House Commerce Committee on March 4, is drawing controversy because its provisions essentially permit certain companies to own and license facts, making anyone who copies and redistributes those facts without authorization vulnerable to criminal prosecution, critics contend. The bill's major supporters are LexisNexis database owner Reed Elsevier, leading legal database publisher Westlaw, and the Software and Information Industry Association; opponents include the American Association of Libraries, Yahoo!, Google, Verizon, Charles Schwab, and Bloomberg. Public Knowledge's Art Brodsky says the bill would allow anyone to monopolize facts entered into a database or a collection of materials, in direct violation of the Copyright Act, which stipulates that ownership does not extend to information and ideas. Commercial database companies counter that if they cannot build databases because of theft, then the public will not be able to access the information. Opponents argue that the legislation would make facts available only to those who can afford them, adding that databases are already protected by copyright statutes and usage agreements. Keith Kupferschmid of the Software and Information Industry Association claims the bill would be inapplicable in cases such as researchers using facts taken from databases to compose academic papers. "The bill only applies where someone takes a substantial portion of the database and uses it in a way that causes commercial harm to the provider of the data," he explains. However, Joe Rubin of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the bill places no restrictions on the amount of information a person has to take from the database to break the law. Click Here to View Full Article: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62500,00.html ]] -- http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0305f.html#item9 #g ------------ Graham Klyne For email: http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact
Received on Monday, 8 March 2004 08:14:52 UTC