Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ateng!chip From: chip@ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: In Moderation Message-ID: <24BE2030.3247@ateng.com> Date: 14 Jul 89 17:17:35 GMT References: <24B8D053.19561@ateng.com> <24AF7C38.8967@ateng.com> <24A91A67.28396@ateng.com> <3300@epimass.EPI.COM> <197600001@inmet> <14403@bfmny0.UUCP> <3749@viscous.sco.COM> <29-Jun-89.175917@192.41.214.248> <1149@intercon.UUCP> <14219@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <24B4C Organization: A T Engineering, Tampa, FL Lines: 38 Just a point of clarification... According to amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker): >According to chip@ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg): >> Perhaps there is no legal way for IMN to make money. Aww, too bad. > >I don't think that "legality" enters into it, particularly. Usenet is >unregulated, and has no controls beyond some very fuzzy conventions that >we all try to adhere to in order to keep things running. This is, if >anything is, "the spirit of Usenet." I quite agree that "you go your way, I'll go mine" is very close to the heart of the collective Usenet intelligence. However, this traditional anarchy is quite distinct from the possible violations of copyright laws which may be required for IMN to make money. Specifically, IMN may try to claim a compilation copyright on a collection of articles which are individually and automatically copyrighted, without asking for permission from the authors. Would this be legal? If, in fact, it would not be legal, then IMN may have no legal way to keep their customers from using the IMN article collection however they please. Such a result would render IMN dead very quickly, as sites borrow their neighbors' IMN feeds. >If you don't like what Geoff is doing, it seems to me that the thing to do >is not to threaten him with legal complications or to scream "censorship." Oh, I'm not screaming "censorship." >Being offended won't get you anywhere, as has been proven on the net many >times over. If you don't like it, do something about it. I consider reasonable discussion to be "something." -- You may redistribute this article only to those who may freely do likewise. Chip Salzenberg | or A T Engineering | Me? Speak for my company? Surely you jest!