Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!gatech!udel!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave
From: dave@micropen (David F. Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Nagel freak needs *.gifs!!!!!! Please e-mail...
Summary: not to dwell...
Message-ID: <817@micropen>
Date: 1 Aug 89 13:51:03 GMT
References: <710@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU> <840@mrsvr.UUCP> <5200@ficc.uu.net> <2685@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Organization: Micropen Direct Writing Systems, Pittsford, NY
Lines: 40

In article <2685@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>, cab@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (CAB) writes:
> 
> The only place you err in your statement is where you redefine the fair use
> clause of copyright law.  It is generally not permissible to take someone's
> work without compensation, even if it is for private use.

Respectfully, I believe that private use is legitimate use.  For example,
taping movies from HBO on your VCR for private viewing is is acceptable.  
These are almost certainly are copyrighted materials and are used in whole.
(This was a big court case several years ago and was ruled OK.)
Taping a CD for my car is legititate use.  Copying a poem for school at the 
copier in the *library* provided for just such use, is a legitimate use.

For works of art, typically, the artist *sells* the piece and relinquishes
rights to the work.  That is, the buyer may display the work publically or
whatever they wish to do with the work.  A Picasso book will credit the
owner of the work (private or museum, not Picasso or his heirs) when they
publish a reproduction of the work.  Permission of the owner is required
not the artist, per se.

Although I myself live by intellectual property and have the greatest 
respect for others who live similarly, the photocopy of Bloom County
I have in my office for my private use and the scanned and enhanced image
of Bill the Cat (accckk!) that I have on a Mac disk for my private use
are my business.

Is there anyone here with a definitive "correct" legal viewpoint rather than
the rank amateurs, myself included, pontificating on this subject?
Which types of work have "private use/fair use" protection?  Which types
of work transfer implicit copyrights to the owner, even if not protected?
(Ie, most "art" is not copyrighted.  How does one copyright a sculpture or
and oil painting?)

I am curious, opininated and but not a lawyer.

-- 
David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc.
micropen!dave@ee.rochester.edu

"The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll