To my mind, the issue of ownership is only partially an intellectual
property issue (OK, mostly).
One of the problems, as I see it, is that many of us are running
around asserting right for the US govt. We are saying that by law
(and contract and the phase of the moon) the US government owns
intellectual property rights in the database. NSI is asserting
(there's no law against asserting) rights for themselves. Most
importantly, the US govt. is not agreeing with us. That puts us in
the position of a lawyer arguing with our client, except that USG is
not our client. It also means we are arguing with ourselves (sorta)
as many of us are US citizens and (sometimes) pay taxes to that same
US govt.
So it seems to me that if we feel that the US govt. is abandoning its
(our) rights in an asset, we (that means you and not be 'cause I ain't
a US citizen or even a resident) should complain formally and if that
fails, if we (that's you) feel that a loss has occurred, we (you)
should file the appropriate papers (again that's you and don't ask me
to do it).
Now off to see Bill Lovell's site for a look at that guitar...
Bill Lovell wrote:
>
> At 06:24 PM 2/22/99 -0700, you wrote:
> >At 06:08 PM 2/22/99 , Patrick Greenwell wrote:
> >>Interesting article:
> >>
> >>http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2213166,00.html
> >>
> >>This is the first time I can recall NSI publicly stating that they own the
> >>information [in] the .com, .net, and .org zone files.
> >
> >Well, they have actually said it many, many times, as long as a year ago.
> >
> >Never mind that everything in the file is authored by personnel other than
> >NSI. I, for example, authored the information in the part of the file
> >relating to my domain names.
> >
> I authored the article "Government Ownership of Copyrights," 29 U.
> West L.A. L. Rev 149-164 (1998), which is noted at my web page
> http://cerebalaw.com/biog.htm and which treats the ownership (or
> even existence!) of copyrights in works authored by those who act
> at the behest of the Federal (or any other) Government. I have a
> number of copies available, and would be glad to send a copy to
> anyone who sends a SASE -- self-addressed, stamped envelope
> -- to:
>
> William S. Lovell
> 17630 S. W. Butternut Dr.
> Aloha, OR 97007
>
> (It would be a brown manila, not a regular letter size.)
>
> The issue would be one of "control," and I distinctly remember a
> little birdy telling me the other day that it was the Government,
> not NSI, that established the .com, .net and .org TLDs. :-)
>
> The impetus for writing the article, I might add, was found in my
> discovery that at that time there was virtually NOTHING on the
> WIPO home page to which access was not restricted. My
> comments on that situation at http://cerebalaw.com/copyright.htm
> -- or at http://cerebalaw.com/intnet.htm -- I forget which, were
> modified from my initial blast at the past to a more cordial note
> on WIPO. Should I change that back now? :-)
>
> (If you go to that page, the guy you see is not me but my ugly,
> evil twin. But check out the great guitar!)
>
> Bill Lovell
--
Dan Steinberg
SYNTHESIS:Law & Technology
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Box 532, RR1 phone: (613) 794-5356
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