Google be gone?

[LordShryku]

Looks like they're trying to pass some shady laws to make copyrighting facts legal.

I find it kind of funny, because I've seen a lot of posts lately pertaining to fopening remote URL's. I always throw my little "You could be violating their TOS" speech in there, because no one wants legal action for collecting sports scores, but it's a way of life. This enforces that even more, so that now you could get sued for using the page, and he database.

Sad, sad world, I tell ya...

An encyclopedia site not only could own the historical facts contained in its online entries, but could do so long after the copyright on authorship of the written entries had expired. Unlike copyright, which expires 70 years after the death of a work's author, the Misappropriation Act doesn't designate an expiration date.

[planetsim]

So basically all this means is that as long as e.g. the encyclopedia site is up its unless permission from the author/webmaster is given its illegal..

I cant see this stopping anyone.

Also since when was it 70yrs after death, i was under the impression it was 50yrs

[LordShryku]

Not to say it'll actually stop anyone, but it is another reason to sue some poor schmuck and win.

[ahundiak]

Disney paid congress a considerable sum of money to extend copyrights from 50 years to 70 years because the copyright on the mouse was about to expire. Existing copyrights will never expire since Disney will just buy another extension in 20 years or so.

[piersk]

Also, if the information is considered a state secret, it can be up to 100 years afterwards, althought that generally doesn't happen with copyrights...oops

[Weedpacket]

Needless to say; it seems a bit daft: why would an encyclopaedia user want use of their encyclopaedia to be illegal? Let's be honest: they want to make sure that only the Right Sort of people use it.