11.0529 Scottish lit.; US copyright issues

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:13:42 +0000 (GMT)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 11, No. 529.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: Jean G Anderson <j.anderson@arts.gla.ac.uk> (10)
Subject: A Guide to Scottish Literature

[2] From: David Green <david@ninch.org> (30)
Subject: NYT article on US Digital Copyright Issues

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Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 13:49:11 GMT
From: Jean G Anderson <j.anderson@arts.gla.ac.uk>
Subject: A Guide to Scottish Literature

Unit Three, "Poetry, Fiction and Drama from 1920", of the cd
"Guide to Scottish Literature", is now available. Cost stlg175.
Orders should be sent to the address below.

For more information email me.

Jean Anderson
____________________________________________
Jean Anderson
Humanities Computing, University of Glasgow,
6 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
phone: +44 (0)141 330 4980
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 10:45:21 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: NYT article on US Digital Copyright Issues

NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
January 20, 1998

New York Times Copyright Article
DIGITAL COMMERCE / By DENISE CARUSO
"A Tough Stance on Cyberspace Copyrights"
Monday January 19, page D3
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/digicom/011998digicom.html>

In yesterday's New York Times (January 19, p. D3), Technology correspondent
Denise Caruso reported on the conflict over digital copyright legislation
that will be even more in the open once Congress reconvenes next week.

In her column, Digital Commerce, Caruso focused on the strong language of
the Administration's proposed "WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act"
that bans, for any reason whatsoever, all anti-circumvention devices. These
devices are manufactured to break the code of copy-protection technology.
Even if material should be freely available for specific uses or in
specific circumstances (as those allowed under "fair use"), if it is
encoded by the owner of the material using copy-protection technology,
under the Administration's bill, it would be criminally illegal to
circumvent the technology.

Caruso ends her piece by quoting a letter from 50 law professors protesting
the Administration's bill as employing overly strict protection mechanisms.
They point out that existing copyright law strikes a balance between owners
of existing copyright material and the creators of new material. This way
education, research and individual creativty have been encouraged, "as well
as the growth of copyright industries which today dominate the
international marketplace in information products."

That letter concludes:
"We should not rush to drastically alter that tested system in ways that
might produce unsought, unforeseen and unwelcome consequences."

For the full text of that letter see
<http://www.ari.net/dfc/legislat/profltr.htm>

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