Sunday, March 14, 2004
Copyrights, fair use, and Internet realitie
Some of you may think it's ok for Dik Winter to copy from a post I made to Usenet and put that on a webpage without my permission and keep it up despite my protests.
But it can happen to you.
Now then, what if you accept that anyone out there can cruise through Usenet, pick various posts of yours, and put up a webpage using your writings, against your permission, as long as they do a few tricks to cover themselves?
Later…not surprisingly…he finds that half a dozen people have now copied what he posted to webpages, and when challenged they claim it's "fair use".
But you see, neither Andrew Wiles, nor Ribet, nor any mathematician who believes they will ever be worthy of note will deal with such a thing.
They will not post on Usenet because of the issue, and the reality of people like Dik Winter.
A person like Dik Winter needs to copy my work because he can't put up something of his own to draw attention, or even if he can, he STILL feels a need to try and draw attention to himself using me.
That's the issue, using another person's work for your own personal gain, and here it's about drawing attention.
I noticed Winter's pages by doing a Google search on my name and math.
Now then, a LOT of you clearly hate me. I know that from a lot of posts where people express that hatred. But here you're shooting yourselves in the foot by thinking you gain some points by cheering Dik Winter on, as if as long as it's being done to me it's ok with you.
Sure I'm no Andrew Wiles or a Ribet, but they can learn lessons from this issue anyway, and see how the reality of the Internet today means that they can't come out on a forum like this one, unless they've already decided that whatever they post is fair game for anyone in the world to toss up on a webpage.
But I guess, they and you knew that already, as people like Dik Winter are out there.
But it can happen to you.
Now then, what if you accept that anyone out there can cruise through Usenet, pick various posts of yours, and put up a webpage using your writings, against your permission, as long as they do a few tricks to cover themselves?
- Claim they are doing it for educational purposes
- Claim that their work is a critical review
- Make sure there's no advertising on their webpage to claim it's non-commercial.
Later…not surprisingly…he finds that half a dozen people have now copied what he posted to webpages, and when challenged they claim it's "fair use".
But you see, neither Andrew Wiles, nor Ribet, nor any mathematician who believes they will ever be worthy of note will deal with such a thing.
They will not post on Usenet because of the issue, and the reality of people like Dik Winter.
A person like Dik Winter needs to copy my work because he can't put up something of his own to draw attention, or even if he can, he STILL feels a need to try and draw attention to himself using me.
That's the issue, using another person's work for your own personal gain, and here it's about drawing attention.
I noticed Winter's pages by doing a Google search on my name and math.
Now then, a LOT of you clearly hate me. I know that from a lot of posts where people express that hatred. But here you're shooting yourselves in the foot by thinking you gain some points by cheering Dik Winter on, as if as long as it's being done to me it's ok with you.
Sure I'm no Andrew Wiles or a Ribet, but they can learn lessons from this issue anyway, and see how the reality of the Internet today means that they can't come out on a forum like this one, unless they've already decided that whatever they post is fair game for anyone in the world to toss up on a webpage.
But I guess, they and you knew that already, as people like Dik Winter are out there.
# posted by James Harris @ 13:08 
