1 Jun
1999
1 Jun
'99
4:02 a.m.
Bluoval wrote:
I wasn't following this thread but here's my
opinion.
A buy a house and everything it contains. There just happenes to be a
treasure
map in there leading me to a pot of gold. who owns
the gold? ME.
Hang on. Says who? Taking the case of real estate - where the laws tend to be
different from other cases - if you buy some property, you own everything on the
property that was legitimately there (not stolen goods, for example) on the date
that ownership is transferred. So if the gold is on your property, it's yours,
whether or not there's a map. If the gold is not on the real estate you bought,
ownership hasn't passed with the property, even if you did find the treasure
map.
I know that the analogy doesn't really stretch that far, but just because you
have the data (map) doesn't mean you have a right to publish or otherwise make
use of it (dig up gold).
Tony Duell wrote:
also.
There's the first difference. In most cases
you're _not_ buying a computer
and all the data on the hard drive.
If I buy a computer w/ a hard drive, what ever data it might contain is mine The seller is/was responsable for the data on there,
not the buyer. the
seller
should've deleted what he thought was sensitive
information. Unless the data
is
copyrighted, I have every right to do as i please with
it, which would most
likely be
erasure.
This way lies major legal tangles. Copyright law in the US tends to be
different from the rest of the world, but over here AFAIK if you put your name
and the date on it, it is your copyright unless someone can prove that they had
their name and a genuine earlier date on it. So any data you find, which will
presumably have been date stamped by the filing system, and may be user stamped
as well (or identified as the user's in some other way) is arguably
automatically copyrighted.
As far as publication is concerned, if you publish sensitive information about a
person, there may be an action for defamation or some similar offence even if it
is true. If it ain't true, there is an action for libel. Did you check truth
before you published?....
I wasn't talking about morals. I'd probably
find the previous owner and give
it to
them, if they wanted it. otherwise I'd trash it.
I have no use for old
letters and
bank statements....
So you weren't talking about morals. Maybe you should have been thinking about
them, though. If someone makes a mistake and you discover it, what should you
(morally) do? Exploit it for financial gain? Or help them put it right?
There have been many books published from people's
personal data... diaries,
love
letters, ect.. especially items found on/around
important dates and events.
Letters/ pictures/diaries from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW, WWII,
ect...
sketches and drawings for some wacky invention.....
all of these things
were , at
one time by someone, considered personal data. many
times we learn from them.
Do
you think these people would have wanted their data
published by some person
who just
happened to find it in an attic, in a house he just
bought? probably not, but
historically they're priceless.
There have indeed. Generally after copyright has expired, which in most
countries now happens 50 or 70 years after the death of the writer. In the case
of war diaries and the like, these are usually published with the permission, if
not the active co-operation, of the author. This is a useful guide for when
personal data ceases to be sensitive - 50 to 70 years after the death of the
person concerned.
For me, the bottom line is more like: If you find sensitive data on a hard
disk, there _may_ be legal loopholes that allow you to use it. But they are
fewer than you might think. And (a) should you morally do so? And (b) do you
want to bring classic computer collectors into disrepute by doing so?
Philip.