Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!att!cbnewsh!wcs
From: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: I want to print some articles
Message-ID: <6965@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 1 Jan 90 20:19:56 GMT
References: <2592602E.26361@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Reply-To: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 api.att.com!wcs)
Organization: Random News
Lines: 48

> Can I reprint USENET postings in my computer club free newsletter?
The net runs on courtesy and cooperation, but once in a while people
want to get picky and legal about things, especially if money is involved.

You're posting from Canada, so I don't know the laws up there.
Here in the US, our government recently ratified the Berne
Copyright Convention, which essentially says they will treat everything 
as copyrighted material unless the owner of copyright permits otherwise.
(Even if you don't put a copyright notice on it!)
Many governments in the world also support this convention; Canada's
may be one of them.  Some of the legal issues include the definition
of "fair use", and whether publishing on USENET is like paper
publishing or like speech, which is generally quotable.

A lawyer once posted an article to the effect that nobody's sure
what courts will do if given the case, but that whatever they do has
a risk of setting precedent without necessarily having a judge and
maybe jury who are competent to deal with the issues.

So where does that leave you?  It's best to ask anyone whose article
you want to copy (electronic permission is PROBABLY enough),
and to obey and include any copyrightish notices on the article.
You certainly should be courteous and let people KNOW you're
printing their articles.  With few exceptions, most people won't mind
(unless they've said something stupid, which happens a lot in some groups.)

If you were including people's articles in a commercial publication
instead of a noncommercial newsletter, it's appropriate to discuss
what you're paying them.  If it's just a fair-use quote, probably
nothing is needed, but if postings contribute significantly to the
value of your publication it may be appropriate to pay them (just as you
would pay authors of magazine articles.)  Not always; I assume
(perhaps incorrectly) that the various cookbooks and joke collections
from the network probably don't pay, but their editors have been
careful to repect copyrights and author's wishes.  (Certainly I
haven't posted anything to rec.humor that's worth paying money for :-)

You have my permission to reprint for noncommercial use any article 
of mine as long as it was not posted to an internal AT&T newsgroup
and you don't represent it as a statement by my employers, who haven't
authorized me to make statements for them.

			Bill Stewart
-- 
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 api.att.com!wcs

#Invading Panama was criminal and stupid and we shouldn't have done it.
#A CIA assassination would have been illegal too but would kill fewer civilians.