RE: [dvd-discuss]Another Poster Child for DeCSS?

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

Then the search engine is the "hook" to invoke the DMCA for protection in the market place rather than protection of copyrighted work (That is something I do not believe the courts recognize). But why would a search engine be protectable? The books all had indexes and presumably they could take the keywords in the index and simply map them to pages. NOthing unique there. Even the labor of retyping it, proof reading etc do not convert that to copyrightable wor(I have not said elementary or trivial since BLOATUS NOTUS cannot get it right and it was developed by the highest quality programmers...

Furthermore, In Feist the USSC did not accept the argument that the act of scanning and doing all that mechanical work warrants copyright protection. Nothing has changed because the technology has only made it easier to typeset. What's more since they did not have to pay royalties or copyright they have already reduced their marginal costs and increased profits. I'd say it quid pro quo for public domain works.

"Richard Hartman" <hartman@onetouch.com> Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu 04/08/2003 01:47 PM Please respond to dvd-discuss

To:        <dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu>         cc:                 Subject:        RE: [dvd-discuss]Another Poster Child for DeCSS?

I would say that their search engine (if any) is protectable, but the
content (the books themselves) is not.

--
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael A Rolenz [mailto:Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 12:56 PM
To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject: [dvd-discuss]Another Poster Child for DeCSS?


Artech (www.artechhouse.com) has republished the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory Series on a searchable CDROM(s). For those not aware,this was a 28 volume set of books put out in the late 40s describing the research done at the Radiation laboratory on development of radar during WWII. It encompases radar systems engineering, radiowave propagation, control theory, microwave design, waveguides. Basically, it's THE CLASSIC source and many of the volume are still in print but not all.The authors are a whos who (e.g., Nichols on servomechanism). Since the work was done under government contract and so was the writing of the books, they explicitly stated that they would enter the public domain at some point (decades ago). So...what's the status under the DMCA? Is a copy of the CD infringement or if protected by a flimsy DRM?