Re: Copyright and Syndication

["Evan Williams" <ev@pyra.com>]

I'm not a copyright attorney, but it seems like Mr. Downes article is 
making gross misinterpretations of the Moreover agreement. To me, it 
seems like a pretty standard software/web site terms of service.

Interpreting the part where Moreover says it "will retain all 
intellectual property rights in and to the Moreover Tools" does not 
mean that they're laying claim to the technologies employed in those 
tools, as is suggested: "Moreover's primary tools are the content-
skimming spiders and the Javascript newsfeed - both common and widely 
used technologies." It simply means their code itself is copyrighted. 
Much as if I wrote a program in C++, I wouldn't lay claim to C++ 
itself, I would just claim ownership of *my* program.

Another part of the article seems to be making the argument that 
everything on the Internet is in the public domain: "But - 
importantly - even though they are placing these [new feeds] openly 
on the internet, they are trying to attach terms and conditions on 
their use." How is that different than every other web site out there 
with a TOS?

I could go about the interpretation of their claim to their list of 
links, but that's been pretty well covered here. I will add that 
you'll notice every single page at yahoo.com ends with "Copyright
© 
2000 Yahoo!" I'm sure they claim the same type of ownership of their 
database. Furthermore, Yahoo!'s TOS 
(http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/) includes very similar clauses 
about using their software -- even though, you could argue, the 
technologies they use are widely available.


--
Evan William
http://www.pyra.com