[Air-l] SW to store webpages

[Dan L Burk]

On 6 Jun 2005, GTa3411203 at aol.com wrote:
> I have been following this discussion and have not yet seen anyone raise
a 
> question relating to the legality of using this approach to capture web
pages
> in 
> support of academic research, in particular those web pages that are
clearly 
> identified as being copyrighted. Are you contacting the owner of the site
to 
> ask permission to create a copy of their documents for current and future
> use? 
> If not, how are you justifying using this approach to duplicating the
data? 
> Fair use laws? How are you using the data after it has been captured? Are
you

You needn't worry too much about whether pages are "clearly identified" as
copyrighted -- you can pretty well assume that they are all copyrighted. 
In the United States, fair use may privelege storage of the pages for
analysis.  Since fair use does not exist elsewhere, researchers may have to
rely on other user priveleges or exemptions (e.g., educational or research
exemptions under fair dealing) which will vary country to country.

Alternatively, there is at least an implied license to view the pages by
virtue of their being publicly accessible.  This may extend to some types
of research storage, since the nature of the technology is that the pages
will be stored anyway (in cache, in RAM, and so on).  Implied license
arguments are always tricky, since the terms are by definition unwritten,
but there is at least a viable argument along these lines.

This is also discussed in the forthcoming Allen, Burk & Davis paper that I
mentioned in my previous post, which Gove Allen presented at the Toronto
meeting.

Dan L. Burk
Visiting Professor
Cornell Law School
Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor
University of Minnesota Law School
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
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