Copyright and the World Wide Web

For me as a small time publisher, the Web offers many interesting features. It offers me a cheap distribution channel (try beating 50 euro/month for thousands of readers worldwide, and untill I get over several milions of readers it will not get more expensive), it makes that interested people can find my publications, either through others linking to them or through search engines, and it even makes for my publications being accessable when my own servers fail.

The flipside of this is that this results in others redistributing my publications in various ways, by means of caching, indexing, archiving, and according to some even by linking to it.

In recent times, some publishers have been arguing that some or all of those activities constitute copyright infringement. While there is no argument about those activities being a form of 'redistribution', I do not see how those activities can be considered infringing.

First of all, those activities are at the core of what makes the World Wide Web a usefull medium and distribution channel. They are inherent to the Web, and I believe that arguing you want the advantages of the Web while at the same time arguing that activities that make those advantages possible are not legal, is pretty silly..

• The Web is as the name suggests, a web of linked information. This imho means that linking cannot be infringing without arguing that the Web itself is infringing. Don't want to be linked to? Don't publish public information on the Web, use some subscription system.
• The Web is searchable, which means that people can find you. This can only be when it gets indexed. Again, arguing that this is infringement is arguing that the Web is infringing. Don't want to get indexed? Don't publish on the Web or at the very least put up the agreed upon sign (robots.txt) indicating this. Also, a subscription based site will work.
• Archiving is the only one where I see some possible debate, it is not technically needed to make the Web work, but it does help making it work a lot better. Again, don't like it? Don't publish on the Web or at the very least setup the proper signs indicating this.
• Caching, there is simply no practical way for someone to read your publication without it getting cached somewhere. Video hardware, User Interface, Browser and Web proxies are just some of the places where this happens. Obviously, you can't get someone to read your publication without them displaying it in some way, so some of this caching is required

Second, all this activity was going on before people started commercial publication on the Web. When publishers got involved, they should have realized the nature of the thing they got involved in. People providing things like indexing services on the Web can have the reasonable expectation that what is out there publicly on the web can be indexed and searched. If you want to exclude some or all of your publications, you have ways to say so. In other words, the supposedly infringing activities are inherent to the Web and if you decide to publish on it, then you should reasonably expect those things to happen unless you put up a clear sign saying otherwise.

This should not mean that publishing things on the Web means that everyone can just take and republish your work but it does mean that there will be situations in which others are allowed to make and redistribute unmodified copies of your publications.

It also means that what you put out there on the Web is likely to be available to people even after you removed it yourself.

Again, if you don't like it, then either do not publish on the Web or put up the proper signs saying your content should be treated differently.