But while you may go to a library to use (read) the books, you are bound
by copyright law anywhere should you want to copy (parts of) the books.
Yes, most libraries have copy machines, but many of them also
have signs nearby that try to briefly explain "fair use."
We could probably also consider this akin to either Dejanews
(which would seem to be covered under an "implied license"
for making copies of network news articles available) or
to an archive of television news (see: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ ).
[ I looked for details on the fight over copyright and TV news
broadcasts, and found an interesting site at http://www.mediahistory.com/
but have not had time to search it.]
But an archive of copies of web pages is not exactly the same as a
library of books, or netnews articles, or TV news broadcasts, and the
issues that it faces under copyright law would seem to also be different.
Whether we argue by analogy or try to extrapolate from both book law and
case law, this will be an interesting situation - and it will be
interesting to see how it affects the growth of the web.
-- Denis McKeon dmckeon@swcp.com