Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bunda
From: bunda@cs.utexas.edu (John Bunda)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: Copyright??!
Message-ID: <18674@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 91 17:38:29 GMT
References: <8btWXFS00V86M653JH@andrew.cmu.edu> <5482@umbc3.UMBC.EDU> <1991Mar22.070901.13060@nmt.edu>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 29

In article <1991Mar22.070901.13060@nmt.edu> dbriggs@nrao.edu 
(Daniel Briggs) writes about copyrighting and the problem of being
quoted (e.g. in Skydiving).

Imagine what a reporter or lawyer might do with, for example, the
current thread of postings on the Colorado AFF fatality.  If I had
been involved with that incident, I would *not* be happy if the
uninformed speculation and argument about blame started showing up in
the media or in court.  A copyright makes no difference - since this
forum is public, a reporter could write "Joe Netter, in an
international computer forum on skydiving, maintains that <insert
paraphrase of Joe's speculative pronouncement on what the problem was
and whose fault it is>."  It is left for the reader to decide
whether Joe knows what he's talking about or just some guy blowing
smoke through his keyboard.  

I fail to see much of a difference between posting here, and having
your words printed in Skydiving.  Anyone can read either, it's just a
difference in distribution.  If your posting wouldn't be appropriate
in Skydiving magazine (e.g. as a letter to the editor) why is it any
more appropriate here?  If you want to get the word out{on some
incident, why would you object to getting it out to a wider audience
in Skydiving?  Would your posting be different if you knew everyone
on your home DZ would read it?


-- 
John Bunda * bunda@cs.utexas.edu * {uunet,harvard}!cs.utexas.edu!bunda