Subject:
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Re: Cats and pigeons...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Fri, 10 Dec 1999 21:06:39 GMT
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Reply-To:
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lpieniazek@(stopspam)novera.com
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Viewed:
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493 times
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Lorbaat wrote:
> > is very possibly a violation of the LEGO Company's privacy, simply via links,
> > if I understand correctly how the URLs were obtained. :-(
>
> True. I mean, clearly they aren't meant to be seen yet, because they aren't
> linked fromt he pages. And yet, LEGO has them on a server, where a li'l ol'
> http request will send them right to you... In other words, they're putting
> the pics out there for the world to see...
If you put a server on the public internet, you can't expect that people
aren't going to nose around and see what they can see.
I'm on the other side of the fence on this one. If TLG has a privacy
expectation for these pictures, they should do their staging on a server
behind their firewall. These pictures are going to be public soon
anyway, I would assume. It's just sloppiness to be working on them out
in public. Their webmasters may be hotshots at building sites that are
hard to use by mortals and the flash-free, but they're not very seasoned
at protecting IP. You need to stage behind firewalls, and then release
everything once you're ready and the day has arrived.
IP law says that if you want to protect your property, you need to take
steps to do so. Mark it, and protect it... (1)
That's why people put fences around construction sites, because they
don't want watchers.
TLG didn't put a fence up, but should have. So they got watchers and
it's not reasonable for them to be upset about it. All that was done was
to post links to the images, which doesn't infringe copyright under fair
use, once they're public...
I think you may be letting the pendulum swing too far on this one.
1 - That is, you have to badge the property somehow as being yours. IBM
for example, cannot claim a document is secret if the document does not
say "IBM CONFIDENTIAL" on it somewhere. Images hosted on the TLG server
are covered only by the badging that TLG puts on the whole server and
whatever explicit statements are made about those specific images.
Therefore they are as legitimate to view as any other images that are on
that server. Further, you have to take steps to ensure that you have
secured access to the property. IBM for example, cannot claim theft of a
document, even if badged IBM CONFIDENTIAL, if the document is left in
huge stacks in an airport or hotel lobby where anyone can take one.
2 - note the distinction between viewing and linking to. One can, as
LUGNET does, take technical steps to prevent linking to images directly
while allowing viewing through the interface. Since TLG did not take
these steps, it's OK to
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Cats and pigeons...
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| (...) week, eh? The dizzying highs, the terrible lows, the creamy middles... (...) True. I mean, clearly they aren't meant to be seen yet, because they aren't linked fromt he pages. And yet, LEGO has them on a server, where a li'l ol' http request (...) (25 years ago, 10-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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