Interesting point. However, when you access a page on the web, it gets
copied
to your machine (cached locally), if I understand thing things
correctly.
That means that everyone who make data available gives you implied
permission to
copy that page. I would assume that having that copy is not illegal.
However,
what you do with that information becomes another issue. If you start
using that
page "as is" and making money with it, then you have great potential of
violating
the copyright laws. The bad news is that the authors of Web pages who
have no
interest in copyright protection do not mark it as being in the public
domain.
There is no way to tell that the author did not wish to restrict the
distribution
of his/her/its material.
To make matters worse, I don't think that I can recall ever seeing a
notation
putting something in to the public domain, nor do I know how to do it it
a way
that would stand up in court.
I suggest that if you are going to make money on distributing something
off the
Web, you should get the author's permission before doing so. Otherwise,
I doubt if
it matters to anyone that you have a copy in your possession.
Might also be wise if you are going to distribute a number of copies,
even if not
for profit, it would probably be wise to get the author's permission.
I wonder if companies doing business on the Internet really care that
you are
giving copies of their advertising to others, since it is really free
advertising that
you are paying for (the cost of the paper, that is.)
Food for thought.
Gary L. Burt
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