Alexa and copyright

[Deborah Fleming]

> 
> I see your infringement issues if Alexa were re-selling/charging web
> pages, but Alexa isn't selling, they're storing pages so that you can
> access them if the site/network is down or not responsive.  This is a
> common practice of AOL to "speed" up your access to a site.
> 
> 
Unless AOL has rights granted by the copyright holders of the sites, they 
might be in violation of the copyright laws, too.  Copyright infringement 
is not only a matter of whether you are re-selling material or not.  I am 
not a copyright lawyer, but I do know that it is considered infringement 
of copyrighted material to make copies of it beyond what is allowed by 
the fair use provision of the copyright law.  I am a librarian and this 
issue has come up in the institution where I work.

I wonder if this Alexa practice is the type of thing we are told is being 
worked out as copyright issues relating to digital data are being 
addressed in congress and elsewhere.

Seems that things are getting messier and messier....

Deborah Allen Fleming
dfleming at mail.cspp.edu