Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!agate!soda.berkeley.edu!adam From: adam@soda.berkeley.edu (Adam J. Richter) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: copyright status and future development of comp.archives Message-ID: <1991Jun22.100107.19822@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 22 Jun 91 10:01:07 GMT Article-I.D.: agate.1991Jun22.100107.19822 References: <1991Jun21.074613.10883@agate.berkeley.edu> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: cc Lines: 35 In article emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: >Consider the following prospect. comp.archives continues on much as >it is today, except that articles don't have any additional >information added to them when I repost them, and I don't necessarily >go to all of the trouble of verifying location information. Other >comp.archives contributors add location information, snappy reviews, >indexes, directories, more keywords, etc etc etc. The total >information content of comp.archives is higher because more people are >working on it, and I work less hard at it than before. > >A second, commercial service provides the same data to its customers, >plus adds value of its own to the materials and keeps the database of >information as a whole up to date. It retains enough of a copyright >on the whole pile of information that it has gathered and created to >ensure that it gets credit where credit is due, but allows individual >pieces of that collection to be distributed freely as long as the >source of the information was acknowleged. I.e. tag on an MSEN Seal >of Approval along with the verification information, so that people >know what they're getting and who verified it. I like this solution (legal questions aside), assuming that the commercial service is carried on an explicitly commercial news hierarchy like biz.*, clarinet.*, or your proposed msen.*. As I've said before, I have nothing against copyrighted newsgroups. I just don't want them in the core news hierarchies (comp.*, sci.*,talk.*, etc.). I don't want site administrators to have to carefully track which individual newsgroups should or should not be transmitted across various networks or which newsgroups must not be distributed outside of a certain set of paying subscribers. Another reason why I don't want the comp.archives itself to become restricted is that there is no shortage of proposed ways to continue an unresticted comp.archives. Adam J. Richter adam@soda.berkeley.edu 409 Evelyn Avenue, Apt. 312 ....!ucbvax!soda!adam Albany, CA 94706 Home: (415)528-3209