[WikiEN-l] Re: Interesting link on British copyright law...

Thu Aug 5 17:36:15 UTC 2004

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004 00:17:57 UTC, Robert Graham Merkel 
<robert.merkel at benambra.org> wrote:

>  
> They were so kind to place their material online here:
>  
> http://www.mda.org.uk/mcopyg/event02.htm

This is useful in its own right.  I note, though, that it's largely about 
the use of things that are still under copyright; it has little to say 
about the reproduction of old works of art.

>...
> 9. How can rights be enforced in the taking of photographs of archival
>  material?
>  
>     * This is difficult to do under copyright law
>     * However, rights can be enforced under contract law

This seems to imply that the person who sneaks a good digital camera into 
a museum and makes a good copy of The Man with the Hoe is not vilating any
copyright (he certainly is not), but he may be violating a contract 
imposed by the owner as a price for being allowed to see the work.  If he 
gives a copy of his file to someone else who puts it up on the Internet, 
can the latter be attacked under any law at all?  I think not.

Not that Wikipedia should adopt a policy of encouraging people to violate 
contracts; that _would_ incur a liability.

-- 
Dan Drake
dd at dandrake.com
http://www.dandrake.com

Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.
 --George Orwell