Slate has published another good article by tech journalist Paul Boutin, who advocates HTML annotation software for bloggers (Newsmashing: The new technique that will change blogging forever). Basically, you would be able to copy a webpage, then annotate directly on top of it, highlighting passages, writing notes, adding links, etc. Such is possible today, of course, but a software package that made it easy (just as blogging tools made publishing easy), could be a significant change, allowing anyone who can blog to create such annotations.
Being a long time fan of annotation, I think this would be great.
Of course, there is the little issue of copyright violation. Certainly, if I hosted the complete original work with annotations, that could very clearly lead to a copyright claim. Under the INDUCE Act theories, the company that made the software to allow this would also be liable. After all, if you are authorized to annotate, then you can manipulate the underlying file without need for annotation software. Clearly, the intent and purpose of annotation software would be to encourage the creation of derivative works and reproductions that people are unauthorized to make.
One possible solution would be to be able to create the annotations as a separate file and then layer them over the original copyrighted work. If one wanted to see the annotation, they would click a special browser link that would go to the original HTML of the work that is annotated (no copyright violation there) and then display the annotation over it (potential copyright violation). There is a drawback in that the underlying work could easily be changed to throw off the annotation, but that is a problem with linking in general.
Of course, all the people who were upset with Google for changing the presentation of their work would be just as upset with all the annotators. Would this be a copyright violation? Would a software company that provided this service be guilty of inducing infringement?
Currently, it is unclear how such a case would come out. I would like to think that annotation of this sort is clearly not a copyright violation inherently, but my views are not necessary shared by copyright owners and the courts.
UPDATE 1410 PT
Apparently Paul Boutin wanted to have an actual newsmashing contest, but lawyers shut him down! (Newsmashing!):
We were going to have a newsmashing contest, but the lawyers shot it down. Damn you, copyright law!
Heh.
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
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