Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!rpi!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!utoday!greenber
From: greenber@utoday.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Introduction to REC.HUMOR.FUNNY -- Monthly Posting
Keywords: Copyright, Plagerism
Message-ID: <488@utoday.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 89 19:38:43 GMT
References: <2712@looking.UUCP> <1449@papaya.bbn.com> <166@deltam.UUCP>
Reply-To: greenber@.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg)
Distribution: na
Organization: "UNIX TODAY!"
Lines: 38

Any person who posts anything to the net, with a copyright notice, has
the right(s) such copyright law gives them.  In fact, with the recent
changes made to the copyright law, you need not even put a copyright
notice on something to retain the rights of copying it.

You must specifically release something into the public domain in order
to *not* have a copyright on it.  I'm not sure whether posting something
on the net is enough to give up that right.

This *may* imply that Brad does not have the rights to copy other's
postings, but it would be upto the individual user to assert that right.
Sticking a clause into a joke that says that it is not allowed in r.h.f
should suffice to *restrict* an implied allowance.

As for Brad's compilation copyright, that's been pretty firmly established
as being a legal entity.  Brad is therefore within his rights to claim
the right(s) to copy his works as he sees fit.  It would be upto the
individual enduser sites to determine whether or not they wish to comply
with the restrictions.  It would be upto Brad to assert his right(s) were
they violated.

Frankly, I think Bard is doing the right thing:  he does spend some time
on r.h.f, and it would be a pity if somebody else made money off of it
instead of Brad.  I would think that the ethical thing to do, were Brad
to make some $$$ on r.h.f would be to redistribute that income, in part, to
the individual contributors to r.h.f.

But, it's pretty silly that, the moment Brad voices the rights he already
has, people start hollering for his removal.

Brad, just as a guesstimate, how much time do you put into r.h.f??

Ross M. Greenberg
UNIX TODAY!
Reviews Editor
uunet!utoday!greenber

[my opinion only, and I'm not a lawyer, although I play one on TV...]