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From: steve@thelake.UUCP (Steve Yelvington)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: USENET -> GEnie uplink now working
Message-ID: <1128890912086954@thelake.UUCP>
Date: 28 Dec 89 15:12:08 GMT
References: <15097@well.UUCP> <935@crash.cts.com> <34975@grapevine.uucp> <457@watserv1.waterloo.edu> <1989Dec21.221719.13364@ns.network.com> <2913@infmx.UUCP>
Reply-To: thelake!steve@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
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In article <2913@infmx.UUCP>,
     robert@infmx.UUCP (Robert Coleman) writes ... 

>	I don't actually care if Genie uses this stuff or not, but you have
> sparked my curiousity; is there no legal way I can stop GENIE from 
> copyrighting MY material if I post it on USENET?

Don't panic. You don't lose a thing.

A compilation copyright covers only the compilation. It does not remove a
public-domain work from the public domain, nor does it infringe on your
rights as author of a message (whatever that means -- since you're making
public utterances, your rights to control their redistribution are pretty
shaky).

An analogy may be helpful.

Let's imagine that you and I are both professors at Harvard University. We
get in a loud argument on the steps of the library about the invasion of
Panama.

We are so brilliant in our debating that we attract the attention of a
wandering reporter for the New York Times, who takes extensive notes.

Later we renew our debate in a Usenet conference. One of the Times'
several computer-literate reporters sees the exchange.

Eventually both our spoken and our written words are quoted at length in a
Times story. The Times is protected by copyright and by an army of highly
paid lawyers.

There is nothing we can do to prevent the profit-making Times from quoting
us. There is nothing we can do to prevent the Times from claiming a
copyright on the reporter's story. There is nothing we can do to prevent
the Times from selling that story to the client newspapers of the New York
Times News Service, thereby indirectly making even more profit on our
brilliant debate.

However, there also is nothing the Times can do that could restrict us
from reusing our brilliant words (perhaps we write books about our
glorious encounter), nor is there anything the Times can do to prevent the
New York Post or the Harvard Crimson from obtaining a transcript of our
debate and publishing it.

There *is* something the Times can do if you, I or a third party clips the
Times article and reprints it verbatim without permission, since it owns
the reporter's work.

Disclaimer: Although, as an editor, I deal with issues such as these every
day, I am neither lawyer nor judge. Even a lawsuit without validity can be
expensive. Your mileage may vary.

-- 
   Steve Yelvington at the snow-covered lake in Minnesota
   Reliable UUCP path: ... umn-cs.cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve