Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!isi.edu!woolf From: woolf@isi.edu (Suzanne Woolf) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Information Control Message-ID: <17289@venera.isi.edu> Date: 23 Mar 91 23:20:00 GMT References: <17246@venera.isi.edu> <106376@unix.cis.pitt.edu> Sender: news@isi.edu Reply-To: woolf@dca.isi.edu (Suzanne Woolf) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 41 In article <106376@unix.cis.pitt.edu> scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) writes: >In article guest@geech.ai.mit.edu (Guest Account) writes: >>I don't agree with the idea that "Information about me belongs to me". >>I have information about you right now. I know that you like to read >>comp.org.eff.talk. That could be valuable information to the >>publisher of a magazine for activists. I don't have your permission >>to have this information and since you are claiming to "own" all >>information about you, I must be breaking the law. > > You're twisting his words a bit here. What he said was "you >can't propagate it outside our business transaction without my consent." >It might be better expressed as "I have a copyright on my personal >information, and you can't distribute that information without my >consent." Exactly. Thanks for this followup. I'll try to clarify further. The poster writing as "guest@geech.ai.mit.edu" (sorry, I lost your .sig) does have my permission to have the information he cites; clearly it would be a bizarre waste of my time to be writing this stuff without expecting it to be read, and I've done it knowing that dozens of strangers now have my email address and some information about my opinions and beliefs. What he doesn't have is my permission to give/sell the information he has to that hypothetical activists' magazine for their mailing list (or whatever). I don't care if it would be of interest to them, it ought to be up to me to decide whether they get it, not them and not some third party who once saw my name on a usenet post. >Actually, this leads to some interesting thoughts. What >if I trademark/copyright my name and personal information? Could I >then sue any company which violated such restrictions by distributing >information about me?? Hm... What a thought. Actually, copyright law would say you could sue. Maybe that means that instead of staying out of the databases, we should just demand royalties :-) --Suzanne woolf@isi.edu