Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lll-winken!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!widener!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!eniac.seas.upenn.edu!chip From: chip@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Charles H. Buchholtz) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: Is the Information the User's? (was _RFC on my "abuse"_) Message-ID: <45356@netnews.upenn.edu> Date: 27 Jun 91 20:26:19 GMT References: Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Reply-To: chip@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Charles H. Buchholtz) Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 23 Nntp-Posting-Host: eniac.seas.upenn.edu From pmoloney@unix1.tcd.ie (Paul Michael Moloney): > [...] copyright exists on something you've written the moment you > write it. So keeping files of writing from a user is in effect > illegal. As I understand it, copyright refers to intellectual property, not physical property. Ie, someone can't publish your work without your permission, or claim that they wrote it themselves. Suppose Alice is a famous author, and writes many letters to her friend Betty. A Publisher must get Alice's permission to publish the letters, since they are her work and she has the copyright. But if a museum wants to display the letters, they must get them from Betty, not Alice; Betty owns the physical letters themselves. I am posting as an individual, not as a representative of U. of P. I am not a lawyer, this is my personal understanding of the law. Charles H. Buchholtz Systems Programmer chip@seas.upenn.edu School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Pennsylvania