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From: rhyde@koufax.ucr.edu (randy hyde)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Request for permission (Important)
Message-ID: <14701@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Date: 24 May 91 17:42:18 GMT
References: <9898@star.cs.vu.nl> <9105201140@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org> <14645@ucrmath.ucr.edu> <10051@star.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: news@ucrmath.ucr.edu
Reply-To: rhyde@koufax.ucr.edu (randy hyde)
Lines: 31

>>> Absolutely not.

By putting your information on the net, you are giving implicit rights`
to copy it.  That's exactly what the net does.  Look at how the info in`
this news group gets distributed from machine to machine.  I even know
of people who sell tapes of internet news to outfits who *for security
reasons* cannot be on the net.  Alas, if someone wanted to push their
"copyright" on stuff posted to the net, I'm afraid they would have to
post an explicit copyright notice with appropriate limitations of rights.
Anyone who posts an arbitrary message to the net has lost control of how
that information gets copied (of course, another way to to set the
distribution, but even that can escape the region specified if someone copies
the message elsewhere).  Berne convention aside, I'm confident material posted
to internet news would not stand up as copyrightable without an explicit
notice.
Anyone who posts to internet should be aware of the distribution policy, which
implies a lack of control over the copying and use of the material.  Now if
someone were to put an explicit notice like "this info is for your own
edification and cannot be used for commercial gain" I could see a problem.

BTW, internet is paid for by the US Government.  Part of the reason peons are
allowed on this system is for the dissemenation of information (which the Gov
wants to promote).  That was what I was alluding to when I mentioned the
internet charter.  Of course, there are non-internet news feeds (UUCP, usenet,
BIX, CI$, etc.).  But those services and people using the internet news feeds
have to live with the rules, or lack thereof. 

Note I am not saying that *legally* this is the way it really is.  I'm
just saying that *it appears to me* (and I'm not a lawyer) that the idea
of controlling your copyright on a news post is rather ludicrous.  You
gave up those rights by posting here in the first place.