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From: charlie@mica.stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin
Subject: Re: r.h.f (long)
Message-ID: <1235@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 89 22:07:24 GMT
References: <11661@gryphon.COM>
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Reply-To: charlie@mica.stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer)
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In article <1233@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> I wrote:

  If Brad starts trying to charge sites for rec.humor.funny or any of
  your other fears actually materialize, THEN is the time to remove Brad
  as moderator of rec.humor.funny, not NOW.  Leave it alone.  Brad says
  that all of this is just for protection against JEDRs.  From the
  actual facts, this seems to be the case.  Why not just trust him until
  his actions prove otherwise?

In article <11661@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) replies:

> This was my guess for Brads motivation of slapping a compilation
> copyright on the group.
>
> HOWEVER - it sets a very dangerous precedent. Brads wording
> states the he ``wanted to reaffirm control over the group. The
> group is mine'' is not within the spirit of USENET. If brad
> want to save cover his ass from the JEDR's of the world he's
> going to have to find another way.
>
> ALSO, this is not a simple of case of defending himself from
> JEDR's. His idead that ``if anybody is going to make money 
> of this it's going to me'' violates the spirit of USENET 
> on a second count.

Well Brad's big mouth has gotten him in trouble before.  He did pour
gasoline on the flames of the JEDR flap with his "you kill 6 million and
...," which was, to say the least, unwise.

He's done it again with this "if anybody is going to make money of this
it's going to me," which is, again, unwise.

The fact remains that until Brad actually tries to enforce such supposed
copyright rights, which your lawyer tells you are unenforcible, no one
is hurt.  People say all kinds of stupid things on USENET and moderators
are no exception.  Why not just leave it at that?

A lawyer's main tactic is to confuse the issue so that nobody but
another lawyer can understand.  If a case actually goes to litigation,
you've half lost already.  You really win big when your lawyer bluffs
the other side out of even trying to sue.  That's what all of this is
about, I hope.

If Brad has bought some protection from harassment with his policy
postings, he should be allowed it.  After all, he did us all a service
standing up to the JEDR attack.  Let's wait and see if there's in fact,
not just in imagination, any problems caused by what Brad is doing.

There's no need for any rush to remove Brad.  If he actually does
anything obnoxious, do you really think there will be any problem
removing him?