Archives quotidiennes :

CRIA speaks out

Publié le par

The Canadian Recording Industry Condemns Government Inaction On Copyright (from a press release).

As Frank points out, it is worth noting that the WIPO treaties are summarized as making copyrighted works easier to « use » legally on the Internet. While this could arguably be true according to a certain interpretation of the texts, it certainly is not the dominant idea I get while reading either the DMCA or the EU IP directive (or reading commentaries on the Japanese and Australian laws).

And you have got to admire the impressive mention of the 42 signatories… « Canada’s international commitments » makes it sound as though we’re a contracting party. We’re not, to either the WCT or the WPPT.

Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe

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« Lab rat: Swapping gets legit » in the Red Herring discusses a system called LOCKSS.

LOCKSS mirrors the way the librarians share their print archives. Each library keeps its own collection but borrows from the others to make a copy if a particular publication is missing or replaces it if damaged. If a library wants to join LOCKSS, it only needs the software client installed on a PC and a network connection to both the library’s local network and the Internet. Once installed, LOCKSS automatically creates a permanent cache, or local database of the journal articles. Unlike other caches that are deleted after a day or so, the LOCKSS cache is never deleted. However, it can only store copies of the journals for which a particular library has valid subscriptions.

Interesting application of a P2P model. It does raise a number of questions, regarding IP but also regarding integrity of the content and auditing. I guess the advantage of a P2P model here is that it avoids the need for the central authoritative server used in a mirroring scheme.

[thanks Cla]