Alexa and copyright

[Harry M. Kriz]

A few columnists in the computer press have enthusiastically described a
new Web utility named Alexa. You can read about it at

http://www.alexa.com/

The company Alexa Internet is archiving the entire Web periodically. it
claims to have an 8 terabyte database of Web pages. If a Web page becomes
unavailable for any reason, Alexa will provide a copy from its archive.

This practice strikes me as the largest violation of intellectual property
rights and copyright law in the history of civilization. But then I'm not a
lawyer, just a librarian and Web publisher. Alexa did not ask my permission
to archive my Web sites, nor to republish them on demand even when I
withdraw pages from publication.

I'm curious about your opinions concerning Alexa's Web archive,
intellectual property rights, and copyright law.

--Harry



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