Important! BOC Lyric Copyrights and the WWW, FTP

[Chris Bates]

Andy said:

> There's a concept of "fair use" - I'm not sure *precisely* how it's defined -
> that allows you to quote passages for review purposes.

[snip]

> I bet it's ok to publish lyrics files if (a) they're your own interpretation
> and (b) they're *wrong*... :)

The internet, and particularly WWW pages, has rendered all laws on
copyright obsolete IMO. For a start no-one has defined publishing
in this new world. There are people who believe that by creating a
web page or an e-zine they are publishers, well if that is so then
copyright laws apply to them. There are others who view ftp sites as
places in which information can be shared conveniently. I believe
that BOC-L ftp site and OLGA would come under this heading, no income
being generated from them. In effect by posting to such sites an
individual can teach a song to many others very quickly. What those
people do with that song is a different matter.

Does anyone know how the Scientologists are doing in their use of the
copyright laws to track down and silence *heretics*? Maybe there are
lessons to be learned from that, which is effectively a test case.


Chris