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From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: philosophical question about mod.recipes and its kind
Message-ID: <835@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 16:28:03 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.835
Posted: Sat Jan 18 16:28:03 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 05:32:53 EST
References: <3273@glacier.ARPA>
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 51

> 
> Anyhow, this gentleman has taken the full collection of recipes and the
> software, modified the format somewhat, removed the word USENET from it
> (changing the title from "USENET Cookbook" to "Unix Cook's Manual") and is
> planning on selling it to raise money for that user's organization, which I
> assume is a nonprofit group.
> 
> I am at the same time thrilled by this and very dismayed by it, and I'd like
> to ask this collection of USENET lovers whether or not there is supposed to
> be any kind of "netiquette" for situations like this.
> 
> How should I react? How should the net react? Is this an issue or a
> non-issue? If it is a non-issue why am I so dismayed by it?
> -- 
> 	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid

It bugs me, too.  To me, mod.recipes is like a club.  Those of us who
contribute recipes do it out of generosity and to keep the newsgroup going.
Now we find that one of the members is planning to take our contributions
and sell them.  There's nothing legally improper about this, since the posted
recipes are in the public domain.  It just seems to go against the spirit of
the group.

I don't think I would have minded so much had we been asked.  If the person
in question had sent mail to Brian Reid (he's the moderator of net.recipes
and is much too modest) asking him to conduct a poll, I would guess that the
mod.recipes readers would have consented.

Another thing that bugs me is that the name "USENET" has been taken off of
the cookbook.  It makes me wonder whether that's the only thing that's been
removed.  Are the names of the contributors still there?  How about an
explanation of where the recipes come from and how they're collected?  Does
Brian Reid get any credit?

Brian relayed a message in which the person in question said that he would
be getting contributions from others, and putting them in the cookbook. Is
that his version or ours?  If they're his, that's fine with me.  If he plans
to post them to mod.recipes, I hope he tries them out before doing so.  I
look at mod.recipes as a collection of the favorites of the USENET "club",
and am not too thrilled at the "club" being invaded by people who don't even
know what USENET is.  This may sound selfish to you, but think of it this way:
suppose your church, or frat, or club, decided to put together a cookbook
of the members' favorite recipes, and one of the members solicited entries
from all sorts of strangers and wanted to put them in the book.  How would
you feel?
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

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