From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Copyright Violations
Article-I.D.: unc.4428
Posted: Wed Dec 15 20:38:25 1982
Received: Sat Dec 18 19:45:27 1982


I was incorrect in my original statement that transmitting copyrighted
articles posted by someone else is illegal. Since the article is often
on its way before an administrator reads it, this is clearly fallacious.

I am familiar with the fact that excerpts from a copyrighted work may be
republished without consent for use in critical articles, or for "comment".
Most such works posted to the net are published as is, with little comment,
and not excerpted. I am firmly convinced that anyone doing this is guilty
of copyright violation. This, however, is not the real issue. Is it proper
for someone to do this? The legalities are irrelevant here. As the holder of
quite a few copyrights, I can say that I would be upset at best and outraged
at worst if anyone were to republish any of my works without asking me. Again,
I ask you to consider how you would feel if someone were to ignore a license
on your own software and distribute it freely.

Finally, to those of you who expect asking lawyers to solve the issue,
you are living in a dream world. My apologies to any lawyers reading this,
but lawyers, like philosophers, strive not to answer questions, but to
perpetuate them. You will find nearly as many opinions in either field
as there are practitioners.

							Tim Maroney
							unc!tim