Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!bpa!manta!brant
From: brant@manta.pha.pa.us (Brant Cheikes)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Expansion of rec.humor.funny to other networks
Keywords: Brad Templetons latest scheme
Message-ID: <474@manta.pha.pa.us>
Date: 12 Mar 89 07:31:28 GMT
References: <438@corpane.UUCP> <3074@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: brant@manta.pha.pa.us (Brant Cheikes)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: Soul of the Gnu Machine, Philadelphia
Lines: 46

[follow-ups directed to news.groups, where the debate on this issue
 is just warming up -b]

In article <3074@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> Anand Iyengar writes:
>	My main gripe about his policy is that the only way that I can
>get an RHF compilation is by buying his book.  I'm not asking for him to
>send out free copies or anything:  it would just be nice to be able to
>ftp/receive-mail/? (even an automated mail-sender would be sufficient)
>the jokes (they're free on usenet, right?).

Premise: putting the joke book together involves a hell of a lot more
effort than just cat-ing a bunch of RHF articles together.  So what
you're saying is this: Golly gee, wouldn't it be nice if Brad would do
all this work and then hand it out for free?  (after all, to you
FTP is for all intents and purposes free)

Sure, that would be nice.  FSF and comp.sources.[misc|unix] are
excellent examples of people doing good work and giving it away for
free.  But are you telling us that high-quality effort should
*necessarily* be performed free?  Tell me about your career plans,
Anand.

>Also, contributors
>to the book get nothing in return, even though their work is sold for
>profit.

Granted, this is a touchy issue, but only when it involves original
humor.  But a lot of what I see go by on RHF consists of quotes from
TV shows (e.g., the Tonight show), "heard" jokes, and "true" (news
story) jokes.  If I send Brad a joke I heard Jay Leno tell on TV, and
Brad puts it in his book, do I deserve compensation?  I think not.
So I question your use of the word "work" in the above context.

As for the people who send in original stuff, I think they have the
right to request that their submissions be omitted from any
compilation.  Brad has made it clear that he has in the past, and will
continue in the future, to respect those wishes when expressed.  Other
than that, I expect some people would be honored to have their
original jokes/stories/what-have-you included in a published
compilation, even without compensation.  Appropriate credit, of
course, should be given (in an appendix, for example) for all included
submissions (Brad: do you do this already?).
-- 
Brant Cheikes
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Computer and Information Science
brant@manta.pha.pa.us, brant@linc.cis.upenn.edu, bpa!manta!brant