Date   : Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:18:03 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Domesday

Jules Richardson wrote:
> Copyright is a *major* issue, by the way. The BBC have basically lost track
of
 
And in doing so have breached the data protection act...
 
> copyright owners for all the data on the discs, which means that they'd
 
Hmmm. The form at the back of the instruction manual to teachers
for the data gathering exercise has a copyright assignment
declaration assigning the copyright to the BBC. The only extant
copyrights /should/ be:
 
- The BBC for the content
- The Ordnance Survey for the maps
- The author of the indexing and accessing software.
 
I think there's more confusing and misunderstanding of the issues -
mostly, it seems, byt the Beeb themselves - than neccessary.
 
However, copyright law at least allows reproduction and recreation
to prevent loss of data - initially to allow eg libraries to repair
damaged books, etc. You buy a copy of a work, as long as you still
have /a/ copy of that work, you the law enables you to do whatever
you need to ensure you continue to have that work.
 
Chatting with a couple of MPs a few years ago, the simplest way
would be to get a short amendement to the UK copyright act passed,
along the lines of the Peter Pan exemption that assigned copyright
in Peter Pan to the Great Ormand Street Hospital in perpatuity,
instead of J.M.Barrie's death + 50 years.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
PDP-11 BBC BASIC development - http://mdfs.net/PDP11/BBCBasic/blog