Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!epimass!jbuck From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Changes to the monthly postings (for rec.humor.funny) Keywords: administivia Message-ID: <2852@epimass.EPI.COM> Date: 4 Feb 89 22:43:19 GMT References: <2706@looking.UUCP> <2844@epimass.EPI.COM> <2714@looking.UUCP> <2847@epimass.EPI.COM> <2718@looking.UUCP> Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA Lines: 69 In article <2718@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: >OK folks, if you really want to apply the principle that a moderator's >compilation copyright over a moderated group doesn't mesh with USENET, >then the following things have to go (or have their copyrights ignored): You misunderstand my objection, Brad. Have your copyright. I assert that by posting to Usenet, you implicitly give permission for every host to pass the articles in question to any other system using normal news propogation techniques. Given this there is no problem with your examples: >A) The OtherRealms fanzine No problem, since the copyrights give permission to redistribute the fanzine electronically. Furthermore, Chuq negotiates very specific agreements with his contributors: they maintain copyright, he gets one-time rights to publish, etc. >B) All postings that say, "you may only redistribute this if your > recipients may." No problem, because this is an attempt to enforce what has always been standard net protocol against an effort to subvert that principle. >C) Matt Crawford's rec.humor postings which prohibit my redistribution > of them in rec.humor.funny No problem: he can say whatever he wants. >D) All "freeware" software that allows free non-commercial use, but prohibits > or restricts people from selling it. > (This includes, as far as I know, "rn", "inews" and other programs that > the net would have trouble doing without.) Again, no problem. I have a big problem with "shareware" that solicits funds over the usenet, but that's a different debate. As long as my system is allowed to send it to other systems I have no problem. >E) All GNU software (Really a special case of class D) See above. The net, like GNU, is based on free sharing of information. >F) rec.humor.funny It hasn't been a problem up to now. Other people objected to your "compilation copyright" when it came to your jokebook; I did not. Here is what I am asserting, and nothing else. Read carefully. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | When you post an article to Usenet, you give permission, by that very | | act, for the administrators of all machines on the net to pass that | | article along to any other machine on the net. You give permission | | for everyone on the net to read it. This applies whether you are an | | ordinary user or a moderator. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ In other words, you relinquish some, but not all, of your property rights to your material by the act of posting to the net. If this principle is eroded in any way, I need to replace my /usr/lib/news/sys file by a very good AI program to see if I can legally send the article in question to my downstream sites. I refuse to do this, and I won't tolerate you attempting to create this situation. -- - Joe Buck jbuck@epimass.epi.com, or uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck, or jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net for old Arpa sites Life is not a dress rehearsal.