copyright infringement by google

[Doug Miller]

I was astounded to see that apache doesn't read all .htaccess
files at startup. It is a never ending self-made problem
that it has to load the information repeatedly, version after
version! I'm sorry I read that. ;-)

Think it through, Dave.

 

[David Raleigh Arnold]

Change them regularly. I'm not an HTML guru so I may have missed a flaw
in this technique. If you put your PDFs in a directory and change the
name of the directory periodically only a dedicated fan of yours will
spend the time required to link to them from their site.

There is a flaw! If a "legitimate" visitor has saved a link it will
fail. You could keep each directory and replace the original document
with a document that directs the visitor to the page you want them to
visit.

This is certainly the best way to start, because I can do it now.
Thanks! Regards, daveA

 

[Harlan Messinger]

No doubt? It is as if the public library lent books by having people come
into my home and take mine.
???

I think you are wrong. I don't know the case law, but I'm not sure you
do either. I have read a copyright decision, though. Have you?

You've read *a copyright decision*! That makes you an expert, then,
enough so that you can claim copyright law covers things it actually
doesn't go anywhere near. Yes, I've read a bunch of them, and some
copyright law besides, and many legal decisions in a variety of other
areas of law besides, so I have a lot of exposure to the way judges
interpret law.

I'm pretty confident that no judge has ever ruled that copyright law
forbids telling anybody where a copyrighted work *is*.

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed David Raleigh Arnold

A question for an html guru:

I want people to download my pdf files, but I want them to
do it only from html links on my site, and not directly
thru links on a GOOGLE site. Is there a way of preventing
such unauthorized download links from working? Hopefully, daveA

As Neredbojias said, the best way to do this is server side.

In addition, you can tell Google to remove content:
[http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=
164734]

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

No doubt? It is as if the public library lent books by having people
come into my home and take mine.

Your PDFs aren't in your home. They are in the public library (a web
server).

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Seems that everyone so far has missed the obvious answer: robots.txt.

The answer might be obvious, but it's a wrong one. Or a correct answer, but
to a different question.

The question, despite its confused formulation, was about preventing people
from downloading PDF files except via OP's HTML pages.

Even if we limit ourselves to pages returned by search engines, or to
"GOOGLE site", whatever that really means, preventing search engines from
indexing the PDF file contents will primarily just make it improbable that
people find those files at all. If you want to protect them _that_ way, why
put them on the web in the first place?

 

[Dylan Parry]

Not all spiders respect robots.txt.

Indeed, but /Google/ (and a great many other search engines) does, and
that’s what the OP was concerned about.

The real solution is a password-protected directory that is not linked
to from any page. Any decent Web host will provide a way to create a
pw-protected directory.

But that would be a barrier to the user, which is another problem in itself.

 

[Dylan Parry]

On 03/03/2010 17:18, Ed Mullen wrote:

[…]

Apologies, Ed, it appears I hit “reply to all†when composing that last
reply, so inadvertently sent it via email as well as to the group.

 

[Lars Eighner]

No doubt? It is as if the public library lent books by having people come
into my home and take mine.

Well, no. It isn't like that at all. I gather you don't have a problem
with the end users seeing the material. If you did, you wouldn't place the
material in an unprotected directory on the World Wide Web.

So it is like you put up broadside, but you want to be the only one pointing
at it. It is not the copyright of the material you are complaining about.
It is that you imagine there is some kind of copyright on the address.

There is, of course, a technical solution to your problem. You could test
the http-referrer, and redirect offsite queries to a "Please access this
page through my site" thing. Whether it is worth irking the end users is up
to you. Moreover, Google and similar repudible services, will honor noindex
meta tags.

 

[dorayme]

David Raleigh Arnold wrote: ....

In most countries, what judges do is apply the law.

In some countries they do this and sometimes, in addition, make
law (in the sense of case law).

 

[cwdjrxyz]

A question for an html guru:

I want people to download my pdf files, but I want them to
do it only from html links on my site, and not directly
thru links on a GOOGLE site.  Is there a way of preventing
such unauthorized download links from working?  Hopefully, daveA

I am a bit late posting to this very long thread. I will keep my mouth
shut about legal issues, since I know little about copyright law, and
you have received many comments concerning this. However I thought you
might like to see details of how to handle FTP in a specific case.
There are several ways to do this on the server I use, which is rather
typical of many using Linux and Apache. See
http://www.hostexcellence.com/index.php/v2/pages.manual6 for details
of what you can do and how you do it. There are 2 ways to require a
username/password and other ways to allow everyone in. You can allow
uploading or not. It is important that you set things up right,
because a certain mistake mentioned in the instructions will let
everyone in to all of the files on the server rather than blocking
them!

 

[David Raleigh Arnold]

You've read *a copyright decision*! That makes you an expert, then,
enough so that you can claim copyright law covers things it actually
doesn't go anywhere near. Yes, I've read a bunch of them, and some
copyright law besides, and many legal decisions in a variety of other
areas of law besides, so I have a lot of exposure to the way judges
interpret law.

I'm pretty confident that no judge has ever ruled that copyright law
forbids telling anybody where a copyrighted work *is*.

I understand that is in litigation. It's hard to keep up.
Regards, daveA

 

[David Raleigh Arnold]

The answer might be obvious, but it's a wrong one. Or a correct answer,
but to a different question.

The question, despite its confused formulation, was about preventing
people from downloading PDF files except via OP's HTML pages.

Even if we limit ourselves to pages returned by search engines, or to
"GOOGLE site", whatever that really means, preventing search engines
from indexing the PDF file contents will primarily just make it
improbable that people find those files at all. If you want to protect
them _that_ way, why put them on the web in the first place?

Good point. Thanks! daveA

 

[Edward A. Falk]

A question for an html guru:

I want people to download my pdf files, but I want them to
do it only from html links on my site, and not directly
thru links on a GOOGLE site. Is there a way of preventing
such unauthorized download links from working?

I believe google respects robots.txt

I'm curious though, why put it on the internet in the first place
if you don't want people to find it?

 

[David Raleigh Arnold]

Think it through, Dave.

Got it. It's not my ox that's gored, it's the server's sysadmin's.
;-) Regards, daveA

 

[David Raleigh Arnold]

Your PDFs aren't in your home. They are in the public library (a web
server).

I don't agree, and there is such a thing as a judge who's an idiot.
Look at the supreme court. They think a handgun is a weapon of
war, rather than something to commit crimes with, to shoot your
horse with, or to have your grandchildren play with. It's not
over, but I'm done. Regards, daveA

 

[Neredbojias]

I don't agree, and there is such a thing as a judge who's an idiot.

A judge is usually a lawyer who's too inept to make it in private
practice. Need I say more?

--
Neredbojias

82nd Academy Award Predictions:

Best Picture: Avatar
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges
Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer
Actress in a Supporting Role: Vera Farmiga or Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: James Cameron

OK, I hedged on a couple, but there they are.

http://www.neredbojias.org/
http://www.neredbojias.net/

 

[Doug Miller]

Got it. It's not my ox that's gored, it's the server's sysadmin's.
;-) Regards, daveA

With all due respect, I think you don't have it yet.

What's the consequence of Apache reading .htaccess files *only* at startup?

 

[Doug Miller]

I don't agree,

You mean you're hosting them on your own machine in your home?

and there is such a thing as a judge who's an idiot.

Usenet posters, too...

 

[Doug Miller]

A judge is usually a lawyer who's too inept to make it in private
practice. Need I say more?

Q: What do you call the guy who graduated law school last in his class?
A: "Your Honor".