Overreaching of Intellectual Property Laws
What a surprise, eh? Well, this one is utterly dangerous in that it would rewrite history. The "Wayback" service, which makes available websites and information that WAS PREVIOUSLY AVAILABLE on the web. Certain groups who wish information could be controlled by them in order to more easily sell their products and services, wish to change history, thus limiting our access to information.
Many intellectual property advocates forget the fact that all of intellectual property law is carved out of and should be subordinate TO individual rights as enumerated in the Constitution. Intellectual property laws were created for the benefit of consumers not for the benefit of creators or sellers of products or services. Limiting access to information, especially historical information, cannot possibly benefit consumers.
Wayback in Trouble? (Tom Mighell): "
I'm a bit behind in discussing this (and Copyfight has already mentioned the issue here and here), but it appears the Internet Archive has been sued for making archived web site pages available after the plaintiff had attempted to block them from being displayed.
I'm no copyright lawyer, and there's a terrific discussion of the legal issues at the Patry Copyright Blog, but this whole thing seems pretty flimsy to me. Any thoughts from the more IP-enlightened here?
"(Via Between Lawyers.)