Nothing Wrong With More Cache

Professor Patry has more on the Field case:

[...]

The implied license ruling is significant, because at its broadest it could suggest that the ability to block caching and the failure to do so results in an implied license. This is a Posnerian type-result: caching is useful and the burden of stopping it is best placed on those who want to stop it and whom can do so easily.

The fair use ruling is also significant due to its highly favorable view of caching as non-substitutional; indeed, since the copy is a cached copy, it is not, by definition, the original. Moreover, the usefulness of comparing the original and the cached copies has now reached such mass acceptance that courts regard it as a given.

One can expect the opinion, which is well-written and reasoned, to feature heavily in future litigation.

C.E. Petit seems to think the decision was results-oriented, but I'm with the good professor on this one (i.e., well-written, well-reasoned, feature heavily, etc.).

[Update:] Re the implied license issue as discussed in Field, please also see Dan Gillmor, Biting the Hand that Feeds, on lobbying efforts of the World Organization of Newspapers, and Agence France Presse v. Google: "If the newspapers are serious about this, they should simply tell Google (and use technology to enforce it) to stop linking to their stories, or put them behind pay-walls. These would be dramatically counterproductive moves, to be sure, but at least the lines would be drawn in an appropriate way. [¶]Legal threats against the Web's design are the wrong way to proceed."

Cache Is King

I've been too slow in highlighting the District of Nevada's recent grant of summary judgment in Google's favor, on the ground there is no copyright infringement involved in the practice of caching pages "as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable." Interestingly and potentially importantly, the court's conclusions are based on findings of lack of direct infringement, presence of an implied license, application of the fair use doctrine, and application of the DMCA's safe harbor provisions (as well as estoppel). Fred von Lohmann thus is right that the reasoning in this decision is poised to have wide ranging effects (unless perhaps it is reversed on appeal).

Far From Mondane

Be sure to include among your Monday reads:

• Blawg Review #42, in which Kevin Thompson reveals how blawgs are the answer to life, the universe, and everything;


• Mad Kane's pleas to several unfilibustery Senators, which rely on the time-honored tenet that it's difficult to resist a request that rhymes (if my younger self could finagle a kitten out of my parents in like manner, certainly Mad has a fighting chance); and


• WELCOME, blawgosphere and NY Times darling David Lat, and eager sidekick Alex Pareen, to Wonkette!

I, Sandwich Dominatrix

(Alternate titles: "Pain In The Low Back" and "Better Than A Stick In The Eye-Dialect.")

I had a passing thought this morning about Geoffrey Nunberg, whose takes on the word "blog" I've enjoyed in the past (e.g., I Have Seen the Future, and It Blogs; Prefixed Out). My thought was that someone might want point Mr. Nunberg toward the recent flurry of pro-and-con discussion about the word "blawg." I've been paying scant attention to this discussion — certainly not enough to know what should be included in a collection of pertinent links, so my apologies for not including one. (You might check Technorati's "blawg" and "blawgs" references.) But several people now have pointed me toward Language Log, and related posts there by Mark Liberman (Who let the Blawgs Out?), and, most recently, Benjamim Zimmer (Blawgs, phonolawgically speaking). Since Mr. Nunberg is also one of Language Log's contributors, it would seem my passing thought has (wait for it...) actually come to pass.

I'm:

• FlabbergASSted (to use — or coin?? goodness, let's hope not — a sandwich word that refers to a sense of wonder and disbelief so profound it knocks you squarely on your hindquarters) at the volume of mental CPU cycles people can and will allocate to such issues;


• tickled at the synergy between bags, baggage, and portmanteaux;


• pleased to learn that while my coinage no doubt will continue to provoke and annoy, at least it will do so with some originality (quoth Mr. Zimmer, "I know of no other sandwich word so dominated by its filling");


• struck by the fact I've always been most partial to a sandwich's middle; and


• gratified to hear Mr. Zimmer doesn't consider use of "blawg" to be a cause for alarm. ("Surely context is key.")

If you are among the folks — linguists excluded; it's their job — who might be spending a little too much thought and energy on this borderline microbial issue, please consider channeling your efforts toward something of more tangible benefit to mankind. (Doorknob spam, anyone?)

[Technorati tags: blawg; blawgs; flabbergASSted; doorknob spam]

Congratulations, Howard Bashman!

As a long-time Bashmaniac, I wanted to send some warm, linky congratulations to Howard Bashman in light of this good news. (And warn Tony Mauro: there might just be a new Sheriff in town).