Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!munnari.oz.au!manuel!cmf851 From: cmf851@anu.oz.au (Albert Langer) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: copyright status and future development of comp.archives Message-ID: <1991Jun20.080024.7383@newshost.anu.edu.au> Date: 20 Jun 91 08:00:24 GMT References: Sender: news@newshost.anu.edu.au Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Lines: 53 In article emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: >in the near future, postings to comp.archives are going to be tagged >with an explicit copyright notice. [*] this is a step in the direction of >making this service fully self-supporting, with enough resources >readily available to the project so that I can afford to keep it >going. I certainly hope you are able to obtain resources for the project so it can keep going as a freely available service. If not, you are of course perfectly entitled either to stop providing the service, or to provide it privately under whatever contractual terms you choose. It is indeed a valuable service and nobody should expect it to be available without compensation to the producer. However I strongly urge you to obtain legal advice (and related business advice, and more feedback within Usenet) before adding any copyright notice. I suspect it would stir up more hostility and expressions of ingratitude within Usenet than any corresponding benefit that might be obtained from making the service look more attractive to potential funders/investors. That of course is something you can judge for yourself better than me, but please take this as friendly feedback. On the legal side, my understanding is that the copyright notice would not be worth anything (though probably also not worth anybody's while to challenge). Essentially what you are doing is "cataloging" rather than "compilation". For various policy reasons the skill and labor applied to cataloging is not protected by copyright (i.e. it is specifically excluded from copyright legislation) and instead a system of publicly funded cataloging has been established. That is not something you can judge for yourself, nor can you rely on my unqualified advice - it is a matter on which you would need legal opinion. A privately contracted service can be operated without protection of copyright, although there are obvious difficulties which copyright overcomes. The existence of those difficulties, and the worthiness of the project that seeks to overcome them, does not however create the legal conditions for a compilation copyright. Although it is irrelevant, I would add that in my opinion the policy in favour of publicly funded cataloging rather than copyrighted cataloging is a sound one, and indeed almost a necessity given the nature of cataloging. Look to the library system for support and funding. I believe it is not only authorized, but legally obliged to provide the cataloging needed. (Depositing some "published" archives with them might bring the issue to a head, since the LC might reasonably claim that they can't catalog stuff which isn't deposited with them as publishers are legally required to do.) -- Opinions disclaimed (Authoritative answer from opinion server) Header reply address wrong. Use cmf851@csc2.anu.edu.au