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 Dear LEGO / 882
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Subject: 
Re: Policy clarification regarding catalogs
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.dear-lego
Date: 
Fri, 17 Dec 1999 22:58:01 GMT
Viewed: 
1236 times
  
In lugnet.general, Brad Justus writes:

This clarification is in keeping with our previously established policy of
Fair Play (see http://www.lego.com/info/fair.asp). The relevant part of this
policy currently states:

<snip>

Thanks for the clarification of policy.

Larry Pieniazek also asked (in light of last week’s LEGO.com catalog image
episode) if it is our policy that 1) "...only images that can be navigated to
using a series of clicks starting from [your home page] are to be viewable,
and whether or not an image is on your public website is irrelevant?" and 2)
"Is it your position that if an image was reachable that way in the past, but
no longer is, that it is not to be viewable?"

Our position is that only images or material which are clearly accessible
through normal navigational means (i.e. by following hyperlinks from the home
page) are meant for public consumption. If unlinked material should be
“discovered” (either by accident or intent), then the publication of the
location of that material is a copyright violation (one could argue that the
listing of the hyperlink to that material is tantamount to publishing the
material itself). And if material was once available (through normal
navigational means), but no longer is, than it, too, is out of bounds.

I guess I'll join the chorus of voices asking that you reconsider this. It's
not a legally defensible policy, and it's not a practically defensible policy,
and further, it sends a bad message about your company's openness.

In the extreme, it even exposes you to gyrations like requesting that someone
retract/cancel a posting showing a link to a (previously valid, since it was
publicly reachable) image after you take the image down. Making such a request
will draw the laughter of much of the 'net community, and not much else.

The easy fix is the one that Matthew Miller and others allude to. Don't do
staging of stuff in public. This is just good practice. Your web jockeys
either know better or should be sacked.

By analogy, the auto companies don't take 4 year away from release models out
in public except in carefully staged media events such as auto shows, and they
don't take models 2 weeks away from release out in public except when shrouded
in shapeless black vinyl hoods that hide details. That's because they know,
and accept, that the media will be peering in every public facing window and
hanging out on every public overpass near their design centers that they can.

In fact, the car companies take advantage of the free PR opportunities by
carefully managing their leaks.

So I'd reiterate, if you don't want stuff linked to, make sure it's not
linkable. If it's on your servers, and it's on the public side of the
firewall, it's linkable.

I too don't want this relatively minor point to come between us at the start
of what I see as a great relationship. But my sense is that Lugnet official
policy will hew to LEGO official policy, even when it's wrong, which will
cause enough acrimony here on LUGNET to spoil the ability to accomplish the
important work we all want to embark upon with you.

++Lar



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Policy clarification regarding catalogs
 
(...) Todd's not stupid, so while I think he may be more inclined to make LUGNET an extremely TLC-friendly place policy-wise, I seriously doubt he'd implement policies that basically go against the entire grain of the WWW. This one part of Lego's (...) (25 years ago, 18-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)

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