Corpora: WWW-based corpus and ethics

Gordon and Pam Cain (gpcain@rivernet.com.au)
Sat, 17 Apr 1999 12:58:24 +1000

Friends--

I'm building a specialised corpus of instructional materials on the WWW
written by academics, to use in a monitor corpus for a project I'm
doing.

Two Q's:
1. Is it legal to do this without their consent?

What if they assert copyright -- am I still allowed to download the
whole lot, even if only for non-profit research purposes?

2. Apart from 'Is it legal?', I want to ask, 'Is it ethical?' to do
this?

I ask because many of you are academics, and this should be near and
dear to your hearts, as well as something you may know the ins and outs
of.

Thanks in advance.

Gordon,
In Beautiful Sydney

-- 
Gordon Cain, Teacher of ESOL
TAFE International Education Centre, Liverpool
Sydney, Australia
gpcain@rivernet.com.au