Xref: utzoo news.admin:4705 news.misc:2589 news.groups:7258
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!rwc102
From: RWC102@PSUVM (R. W. F. Clark)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc,news.groups
Subject: Re: Procedure for rec.humor.funny debate
Message-ID: <70453RWC102@PSUVM>
Date: 8 Feb 89 01:14:11 GMT
References: <2726@looking.UUCP> <7650@chinet.chi.il.us>
Followup-To: news.groups,news.misc
Organization: Culture is Our Business is Our Culture
Lines: 26

In <7650@chinet.chi.il.us> patrick@chinet.UUCP (Patrick A. Townson) says:
>
>What if someone, like a backbone administrator for example, were to cull
>through the messages on the entire net over a two year period -- including
>messages in r.h.f., and then publish something called "The Best of
>Usenet Messages" -- and claim compilation copyright based on the several
>hours he had to labor each week getting his machine to work properly in
>handling news? Would you like that?
>

Well, under recent copyright laws, it would seem that USEnet articles
are distributed with an implied copyright which would disallow redistribution
for profit.

Further take into account the many posters who place copyright notices
at the ends of their postings.

Such a person would presumably be required to get the permission of
every person whose postings he culled, or risk the first class-action
lawsuit filed by a large group of USEnet posters.

However, the act of sending a joke to rec.humor.funny implies that
the sender has no objection to the distribution of the joke.

This analogy rates a good five milligillies.

fc                  allegra!psuvax1!psuvm.BITNET!rwc102