Re: My Website Has Been Taken Down

[Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>]

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009, mdj wrote:

> On Jan 20, 2:08 pm, Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>
> > You're badly confused about copyrights.  Some of what you write sounds
> > like you are talking about patents, which indeed do protect the inventor
> > but allow the information to be out there.
> >
> > You have absolutely no right to someone's copyrighted work, whether it's
> > in Canada or anywhere else.
>
> Actually I believe Bill is referring to one of the many Fair Use
> clauses that are in the Copyright law of pretty much every western
> country.
Except Fair Use doesn't require that everything be available, and it
doesn't mean one can simply copy a complete work.

It's intent is to allow limited quoting and referencing.

So if I have a copy of a rare book, I can quote it because I
want to give some of the essence of the book, or because I want
to rebuke it and I need some context.  Maybe even to convey a bit
of information from it.  But reasonable quoting is not the same
thing as offering the whole text.

On the other hand, if I don't have the book at hand, and can't
get a copy, there is no obligation on the author's part to provide
the content.  And I sure can't reprint the book, in paper or digital
form, simply because the book is otherwise unavailable.

    Michael