"Mere aggregation" is there for a reason. [LWN.net]

"Mere aggregation" is there for a reason.

Posted Dec 1, 2010 3:08 UTC (Wed) by Trelane (guest, #56877)
In reply to: "Mere aggregation" is there for a reason. by madscientist
Parent article: The kernel and the C library as a single project

Of course, to redistribute something you need permission because copyright restricts redistribution.

No, copyright restricts, erm, copying. Hence the name.

to post comments

"Mere aggregation" is there for a reason.

Posted Dec 1, 2010 3:14 UTC (Wed) by Trelane (guest, #56877) [Link] (2 responses)

Ha. And, of course, I'm wrong. Quoth the Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf)

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
In addition, certain authors of works of visual art have the rights of attribution and integrity as described in section 106A of the 1976 Copyright Act.

"Mere aggregation" is there for a reason.

Posted Dec 2, 2010 1:49 UTC (Thu) by nybble41 (subscriber, #55106) [Link]

That's true of section 106 the original Copyright Act, but section 109 ("Limitations on exclusive rights") and the Doctrine of First Sale pretty much nullify the third point in the case of simple redistribution or public exhibition of existing copies--apart from sound recordings or software, which were (idiotically) excluded from the limitations in section 109(a) by 109(b).

Copy, right?

Posted Dec 6, 2010 0:24 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

> Ha. And, of course, I'm wrong.

Err... you mean, you are right?

Every bullet point you quote is about reproducing the original work in one way or the other. That does not seem to stretch the meaning of "copy" a lot, or does it?

"Mere aggregation" is there for a reason.

Posted Dec 1, 2010 10:07 UTC (Wed) by PO8 (guest, #41661) [Link]

The term "copyright" originally was used to describe rights upon "copy" in the older sense of written material. The term itself had nothing explicit to do with "copying". Of course, it's easy to see where the confusion could come from here.