Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!bzs
From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xwebster
Message-ID: <37802@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 8 Sep 89 22:30:25 GMT
References: <8909071325.AA25395@fnord.umiacs.UMD.EDU> <4537@shlump.nac.dec.com> <16932@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 46


From: stolcke@icsib6.Berkeley.EDU (Andreas Stolcke)
>O.K., so you better be 'logged into' the NeXT. Presumably rlogin will do,
>since I can't imagine NeXT would object to people using their machine
>in a standard UNIX networking environment.  Now, what's the difference
>between someone reading the dictionary during an rlogin session
>(i.e. while talking to the rlogin daemon) and someone doing the same
>via some more suitable software, namely xwebster and the webster server
>daemon? I can't find any significant difference.

I think you're right, that's more like buying a dictionary and putting
it out in the library for everyone's use. I think the word *copy* is
key here tho copyrights these days usually reserve transmission rights
by any means electronic or otherwise etc etc.

Let's see what webster says:

  1. copy.right \-.ri-t\ n : the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, 
     and sell the matter and form of a literary, musical, or artistic work - 
     copyright aj

Not much help, wonder if I violated their copyright.

Generally such things are copyrighted as a collection, not as
individual items. I don't think anyone believes I have violated a
Miriam-Webster copyright by quoting a definition out of their
dictionary, even without proper attribution (don't confuse what your
teachers demanded as good scholarship with copyright laws, though in
many cases attribution is required.)

Significant chunks are of course a possible violation of their
copyright, particularly if presented as a dictionary. Dictionaries and
other collections use "ringers" to catch that (purposeful errors you
are unlikely to have made accidently.)

Anyhow, this is quite far afield of X per se tho the boundaries
between graphical interfaces and multi-media on-line systems is of
some interest.

-- 
	-Barry Shein

Software Tool & Die, Purveyors to the Trade
1330 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02146, (617) 739-0202
Internet: bzs@skuld.std.com
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