The Python 1.6 License Explained

[Paul Robinson]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> Paul Robinson wrote:
> > being displayed in some sense is also available to be copied in a way
> > that differs from recording a telephone call or copying the words of a
> > poem from a notice board. The work is available to be copied in an exact
> > way - a consumer of this work can effectively retrieve an exact copy of
> > the original.
> 
> So, if the phone call proceeded under entirely digital ways, so that
> recording by suitable means could guarantee 'an exact copy', then it
> would suddenly, and because of this, become a publication rather than
> a performance?  Sorry, I can't see that the difference between analog
> and digital recording/transmission/reproduction of sound is so 'huge'
> as to warrant this sudden jump from 'performance' to 'publication'.

I would tend to agree in that case. But I would contend that the web
deserves to be treated as a very different medium.

Earlier, Alex Martelli wrote:
> http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/101.html
> """
> ''Publication'' is the distribution of copies or phonorecords
> of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership,
> or by rental, lease, or lending.
> """
> and, "The offering to distribute" such copies or records is also
> 'Publication' (according to US laws; I don't think this generalizes
> internationally), while "public performance and display" is not.
> 
> Example: I write a poem.
> [case a]: I display the written text of my poem on a billboard.  I
> have 'publically performed or displayed' the work of authorship: you
> can read it -- you could photograph the billboard (or write down
> the words that you're reading from it), so YOU could 'make copies' --
> but I have NOT 'published' the poem, since I have not distributed
> (nor offered to distribute) the copies.
> 
> So, my work of authorship is yet unpublished.

Could it not be argued that the act of displaying the text of your poem
in a web page that is accessible to all users of the web, is by
implication "offering to distribute" your work?

By displaying the page on your website you are effectivly forcing every
person who views that page to make a copy (in what could be a temporary
way - but a copy non the less). This copy is distributed to the viewer
via an electronic medium.

Out of interest does anybody know if the music industry objections to
copyright issues with "Napster" are under the heading of publication or
performance? I presume that it is performance given the current state of
the US copyright law. Hwoever, I would find it hard to claim that
downloading a copy of your favourite CD (without playing the tracks)
constitued a performance but not a publication. I suppose that any
precedents set there would not necessarily affect the law with regard to
web pages anyway.

	Paul.