Re: washington post notices archives

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 9:39 PM 4/11/96, Andrew K. Bressen wrote:

>we here at HKS.net have today received a cease and desist
>letter from the washington post regarding editorial copy
>of theirs that was evidently posted to c'punks and then
>abosrbed into our c'punk archives.
>
>Once the archives are restored (RSN) we'll probably manually edit out
>the messages from the archive. We're trying to get the post to give us

Several relevant points for lists like ours:

1. Expect more and more of these sorts of copyright "cease and desist" (or,
as I like to say, "decease and cyst") orders, as newspapers and magazines
use search engines to find their stuff. Expect some "automated searches" to
be done routinely, even offered as services by third parties. ("Find
infringing copies...make $1000 a week in your spare time.")

2. What does removal of infringing articles mean for follow-ups? If I
reference a WSJ or NYT article that someone has quoted or forwarded, is my
follow-up expunged also?

3. And what of the "Cypherpunks Archives on CD-ROM"? Too late to simply
remove a single article...does the entire production run go into the
landfill?

(I haven't heard much about the "enthusiasm du jour" of the "Cypherpunks
CD-ROM," but this always been a concern, that legal issues would have to be
resolved, including the getting of releases from several hundred or more
parties.)

4. Suppose the HKS archives were actually offshore, in the Cayman Islands
or in some place that doesn't recognize copyright law in the same way most
Western or Berne Convention countries do?

5. Suppose access to such archives is done via Web remailers, and the
location is not easily determinable? (To be sure, lots of hits means
traffic analysis will reveal the location....the same general problem with
"reply-blocks," of course.)

It sounds like the Washington Post is discovering the brave new world.
Expect an article or two on this.

--Tim May

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