There is an interesting and well written layman’s article on the problem of having digital material available on the Internet in a form that can be cut and pasted, quoted and requoted and taken out of context.
The original article, starts like this:
Web 2.0 and Maintaining the Integrity of Online Intellectual Property
— As the creation and distribution of information become more collaborative, dynamic, and social, and as application software evolves to support ‘mashups’ that combine both content and functionality from various sources, traditional definitions of ‘documents,’ their authorship, and their ownership are becoming obsolete. Dennis McDonald’s concern is that, as ‘Web 2.0′ becomes increasingly interactive, social, and embedded in daily life, we will need to develop better mechanisms for keeping track of what is the individual’s, what is the group’s, and what has changed.
and is found at the following link: http://web2journal.com/read/190346.htm
Now copyright legislation developed in England with the advent of printing and the possibility of mass production, with the Statute of Queen Anne.
Written data is a transferable resource that can be cut, pasted, reworked and massaged into new and diverse forms. In previous postings we have reported and commented on various atempts to sue singers, composers nad authors for plagiarism and copyright infringement. The article related to do above refers to a differet problem. It deals with factual material becoming rehashed, reedited and republished on other websites.
I am guilty of this myself of course. I try to keep subscribers up to date with IP developments of interest, particularly those with an Israeli connection. I frequently cut and paste statistics, quotes and other facts from articles from reputable sources such as newspapers, and massage the material in the manner that I like to refer to as my style.
Is it Kosher? Where are the boundaries?
-If facts are published in non-ground breaking news, I do not see a necessity to credit the source, which is not the original source anyway usually. That does not mean to say that I never refer to the source material Just that I do not consider it neccessary to.
Where the facts cannot easily be checked and where one quotes other peoples’ opinions one should certainly reference sources. This is important for a number of reasons, including basic decency.
The legal issues include copyright infringement. In the US there is copyright legislation for the digital millenium. In Israel, the copyright laws are based on the UK Copyright Law of 1911 and are woefully irrelevant to modern reality. The whole world is grappling with tryign to legislate for the new era, and there is a case for specific legislation for the new medium, as ith laws to protect Integrated Cicuits and the like.
From inception to the present day, copyright has been more to do with financial issues than with moral rights, and there are legal remedies that cover moral rights. In Israel there is a catch all law to allow wronged parties to claim a share of the profits, in the Law for Unjust Enrichment. Similar remedies exist elsewhere.
I don’t think the problem of most concern is copyright or unjust infringement however. As a general rule, Internet accessible resources are considered by thier authors as being in the public domain apart from commercial use.
In the Jewish academic tradition, traditions, comments and facts were cited in the name of the source, and where something was passed on fifth hand with the full chain: Rabba said in the name of Rabbi X, in the name of Rabbi Y who heard from Rav of the school of…
The system was not foolproof of course, and arguments developed regarding the correctness of a citation, particularly where inconsistencies were found.
Nevertheless, I think the appropriate remedy for the modern age is to have an electronic tagging system tha enables people to track the concepts and ideas. it is a question of education as much as a technological or legal one. It si necessary to train people to configure their system to link data in an appropriate manner.
