Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cuuxb!dlm
From: dlm@cuuxb.ATT.COM (Dennis L. Mumaugh)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Procedure for rec.humor.funny debate
Summary: A modest proposal
Message-ID: <2466@cuuxb.ATT.COM>
Date: 8 Feb 89 00:10:22 GMT
References: <2726@looking.UUCP> <7650@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: dlm@cuuxb.UUCP (Dennis L. Mumaugh)
Organization: ATT Data Systems Group, Lisle, Ill.
Lines: 54

In article <7650@chinet.chi.il.us> patrick@chinet.chi.il.us 
(Patrick A. Townson) writes:
>
>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? 
>
>There is no argument with compilation copyright where many publications are
>concerned....just that it does not belong on Usenet. It would work fine,
>and in fact be quite appropriate on Compuserve, or Dow Jones, or Source.
>But not here.
>
I have a modest proposal.  Since Brad Templeton has asserted that
people have an unlimited right to collect material from USENET
such as jokes from rec.humor, organize them and the sell the
result for profit, I propse the following:

I'll take my archives of comp.unix.wizards and comp.unix.questions 
and news.announce.newusers and ....  And I'll publish a book on
Everything You Wanted to Know About UNIX and Were Afraid to Ask.
I'll include Doug Gwyn's articles about UNIX and System V, and
Guy Harris' on how things work, and of course John Mashey and
dmr@alice on how things were in the old days, and the concensus
on what good coding standards, etc.  Publish the 100 most asked
UNIX questions.   Hints and kinks for new users.  And not one original
line of text.   Hmmmm, I wonder if markov3 or mvs@alice is available
to help?

Someone else can tackle comp.arch and publish a book on computer
organization.  Someone else could take rec.arts.movie.reviews and
publish them as a book.  We could collect sci.med.aids and sell
it to people as a subscription service.  Alt.sex could be sent to
Hustler and Penthouse.

To quote an Oscar Brand song "my god how the money rolls in".

In the above modest proposal in the sense of Jonathan Swift I
mention some moderated groups and some un moderated groups.

Either Brad is right and ANYONE can take material off of USENET,
compile it and publish, or no one can.  If Brad is right, the
only question is are your companies willing to carry the feed for
copyrighted material that they will be held liable for
controlling distribution and use?  Ask your lawyers.  The current
situation is getting to the point where any system administrator
is subject to legal problems if the so-called owner of
rec.humor.funny wants to object.

-- 
=Dennis L. Mumaugh
 Lisle, IL       ...!{att,lll-crg}!cuuxb!dlm  OR cuuxb!dlm@arpa.att.com