Slashdot Mirror
The Internet Archive Sued Over Stored Pages
Kailash Nadh writes "The Internet archive, which has been storing snapshots of millions of webpages since 1996 has been sued by the firm Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey, Philadelphia. The firm was defending Health Advocate, a company in suburban Philadelphia that helps patients resolve health care and insurance disputes, against a trademark action brought by a similarly named competitor. In preparing the case, representatives of Earley Follmer used the Wayback Machine to turn up old Web pages - some dating to 1999 - originally posted by the plaintiff, Healthcare Advocates of Philadelphia. Last week Healthcare Advocates sued both the Harding Earley firm and the Internet Archive, saying the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal." CT:update note that the submittor got it backwards: Healthcare Advocates is the sueing Wayback and Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey, not the other way around.
It doesn't matter if the public archive thinks it is performing a public service here- and that somehow gives them permission to republish the web pages. If the author of the web site had his copyright mark on the pages then what public archive is doing is no different than copying a DVD and passing it out free as a public service. Unless they had permission from the author it is stealing. Separately, if there is a hell the lawyers are finding ways to drag out the torture process for a contingency fee. Something like "torture us last."
Cogito Ergo Sum
Dead Wrong! You argument is obviously bogus when you substitute "book" for "doggie in the window". Permission is not given to copy the website, plain and simple. Google is next. Then all these "karma whore" slashdot posts with slashdotted, yet copyrighted, pages posted here, WITHOUT PERMISSION!!! It's illegal, you know. It doesn't matter than it happens all the time. So does speeding, and man, when you get caught, I'm glad!