Well Bob, I (and I think most of the world) does not consider publishing an
HTML page "injection" into the network

(I do actually see that is a possible interpretation, but am arguing what I
think is the broad consensus)

So as long as any page doesn't have a rel=hub it shouldn't end up going
through a hub, correct?

On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Bob Wyman <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 6:34 PM, Matthew Terenzio <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Yes, Bob I think I agree and yes that was long but probably worth it on
>> this type of topic.
>>
>> My point was aimed at "arbitrary content." If the protocol is to support
>> "arbitrary content" then the content may NOT be from one of the formats we
>> typically associate with syndication.
>>
> That is why I was careful to say that "injection" into a syndication
> network by a publisher would also create an implicit license. Format isn't
> the only way to create an implicit license.
>
>
>
>> I have no point but to try and keep awareness up on what might be
>> backlash from content owners once it becomes clear that redistribution of
>> something like a "normal" web page is happening.
>>
>> For the record, I'm all for it and would argue in the news organizations
>> I've been in that it was a benefit to us. I would probably lose. I lost
>> when I pushed for full content RSS feeds in 2003.
>>
>> I think the challenge is in a site giving PuSH services the right to push
>> "arbitrary content" but simultaneously NOT allowing  reproduction of their
>> content on other sites.
>>
>> Hard to imagine how such a world would work without a icense being
>> attached to syndicated media objects.
>>
>> Hard to imagine that working as well.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 5:48 PM, Bob Wyman <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Matt,
>>> The important distinction is between syndication of content and
>>> unauthorized distribution.
>>>
>>> In general, copyright law (at least as interpreted by courts in the US)
>>> prevents any unauthorized copying of protected content that is not required
>>> in the normal act of reading or consuming that content. In other words,
>>> facilitative copying is permitted as it is seen to be part of the mechanics
>>> of reading. However, even while such copying is permitted, it is only
>>> permitted for the express purpose of facilitating the reading of the
>>> content and other things that can be done with copied content do not become
>>> permitted simply because one of the reasons for copying was to facilitate
>>> reading. Thus, just because you can copy content into temporary caches,
>>> screen buffers, etc. doesn't mean that you are allowed to then republish
>>> that content in a modified form (unless necessary to permit reading), as
>>> part of a collection, or whatever.
>>>
>>> Syndication via feeds, PSHB, etc. should be seen as providing nothing
>>> different from what is provided by TCP/IP, web protocols, etc. These are
>>> simply delivery mechanisms that move content from a publisher to a reader.
>>> The fact that copying is involved in these transfers is no more interesting
>>> than the copying that occurs for any TCP/IP packet or the copying that
>>> occurs in a web browser. Thus, just as we say that a publisher who puts
>>> content on the web in the form of an HTML page implicitly licenses
>>> facilitative copying by browsers, we can say that publishers who "publish"
>>> content within a syndication network (either by creating feeds or by
>>> pushing fat-pings to hubs) is also implicitly licensing that content to
>>> flow through that network. The key thing to understand, of course, is that
>>> the mere fact that some copying was done to facilitate syndication and
>>> subsequent reading does not in any way weaken copyright protection for any
>>> other purpose. The copies are just as protected as the originals.
>>>
>>> One might argue that the implicit license to syndicate doesn't exist in
>>> the case where a scraper is used to convert content such as a web page into
>>> a syndication format without the permission of the publisher. However,
>>> while this case might generate some debate, we shouldn't question that
>>> publishers who knowingly convert, or permit the conversion of, their
>>> content to syndication formats have provided a limited implicit license to
>>> syndicate.
>>>
>>> If the rule I suggest above is *not* accepted, then what you'll find is
>>> that none of the syndication systems in use today can be safely operated
>>> without fear of legal problems. The problem is that if format conversion or
>>> injection isn't the signal for the implicit license to syndicate, then
>>> *any* publisher could create feeds and inject content and then object when
>>> the syndication network works as designed and intended. This is known as
>>> "poisoning the stream..." (There have been cases of people who created
>>> feeds that contained "licenses" in them and then insisted that they were
>>> being damaged by all feed syndicators that didn't pay attention to those
>>> licenses. This sort of entrapment by poisoning the stream clearly should
>>> not be permitted.)
>>>
>>> Many have suggested that greater control over distribution can and
>>> should be given to publishers via some form of machine readable license to
>>> distribute content. However, whether or not such machine readable licenses
>>> would be useful (I think they would create a mess), it is important to
>>> realize that no non-legislative authority, such as a standards group, can
>>> usefully define the format of such a machine readable license. The reason
>>> is that only legislative bodies (i.e. governments) can define the means by
>>> which one party is encumbered with legal responsibility to a second party.
>>> A non-legislative body might define a format, however, that wouldn't given
>>> any a legal requirement to pay attention to stuff encoded in that license
>>> -- unless there were some explicit and private contractual relationship
>>> between the parties.
>>>
>>> You may argue that Creative Commons is an example of a machine readable
>>> license and if CC licenses are possible, then others should be as well.
>>> However, it is important to note that Creative Commons licenses do not, in
>>> any circumstance, impose greater restrictions on use than what is provided
>>> by copyright. Creative Commons licenses do not restrict usage, rather they
>>> only grant rights that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright. (Note:
>>> The CC "non-commercial" license doesn't actually "prohibit" commercial use,
>>> rather it simply says that commercial use rights are not granted and are
>>> thus are restricted to whatever copyright law would provide or not provide.)
>>>
>>> Sorry for going on so long. I've just heard this concern before and am
>>> trying to anticipate a number of directions that this conversation normally
>>> goes in... Basically, I don't think we have a problem as long as we're only
>>> talking about syndication and as long as the content syndicated comes
>>> either in a format which is known to be a "syndication format" (i.e.
>>> RSS/Atom, etc.) or if the publisher injects the content into the network.
>>> In both cases, there is an implicit, limited license to syndicate.
>>>
>>> bob wyman
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 5:02 PM, Julien <[email protected]>wrote:
>>>
>>>> This is a message sent my Matt Terenzio posted in another topic. As I
>>>> believe this is a topic worth discussing, I'm reposting it here :
>>>>
>>>>    I brought an issue up in the early days and got a few decent
>>>> responses and
>>>>    a number of irrelevant attacks which I guess was because I was
>>>> considered
>>>>    the RSSCloud guy on the PuSH list. Just thought I'd toss that in
>>>> here.  ; )
>>>>    But it had to do with the architecture of PubSubHubbub and
>>>> respecting
>>>>    copyright.
>>>>    At some point in a a widely grey area there is a line between
>>>> syndication
>>>>    and unauthorized redistribution of content. I don't know where it
>>>> is and it
>>>>    might even begin with the publishers intention or implicit license
>>>> they
>>>>    give by making a feed available.
>>>>    While I tend to lean toward more open licenses for content, not
>>>> everyone
>>>>    does. And because hubs can daisy chain content down lines, whether
>>>> or not
>>>>    your hub is respectful might not mean you aren't part of a
>>>> questionable
>>>>    distribution chain.
>>>>    That last part is certainly not the strong part of what I'm
>>>> saying. Just
>>>>    saying we should think about what it means to redistribute parts
>>>> of the web
>>>>    that owners might not have intended for syndication.
>>>>    Aside from that concern which I'm sure you have already thunk
>>>> about, I
>>>>    think it has incredible potential with the explosion of semantic
>>>> web data
>>>>    arriving on the web.
>>>>    So much so that I could see feeds being unnecessary for many sites
>>>> since
>>>>    all the pages are marked up well enough that the description of
>>>> the content
>>>>    is just as easily digestible from the web page as it was from the
>>>> feeds.
>>>>    Almost, at least, though there would still be the overhead of the
>>>> crawl, I
>>>>    guess. But for many blog style sites, a sematically marked up home
>>>> page is
>>>>    practically as good as a feed.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

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