From: forda@gtephx.UUCP (Andrew Ford @ AGCS, Phoenix, Arizona)
Subject: Re: Copyrights on netnews articles
Organization: gte
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 00:33:05 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.010436.28323@talon.ucs.orst.edu>, stanley@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (John Stanley) writes:
> In article <1992Jul23.190525.29053@clarinet.com> brad@clarinet.com (Brad Templeton) writes:
> >We can only list that as an expectation if there is no copyright licence
> >on the material.   
> 
> Putting a copyright notice in a USENET posting does nothing to change
> the behaviour of USENET software; thus, it is lunacy to base one's
> expectations of the behaviour of USENET on the presence or absence of a
> copyright notice.
> 
> >This is not, in my belief, something we get a choice about.  It is simply
> >the facts.
> 
> As is the worldwide copying of material posted to USENET. You can
> choose what group and distribution to put on your posting, but you have
> NO choice over who gets copies of things from those groups or
> distributions.
> 
> >The default in copyright law is that you can't copy without
> >the clear permission of the copyright holder.   
> 
> Posting is clear permission of the poster. If he is also the copyright
> holder, then it is clear permission of the copyright holder. 
> 
> >You can argue that the
> >absence of a licence on a usenet posting is equivalent to that permission,
> 
> There is no need to argue this. The ACT of posting is the act of
> granting permission.
> 

Even further, the act of posting is a command to all computers on the net
to copy: if you knowingly send intstructions to a computer and you know
that said instructions will cause said computer to order copies made all
over the world in all kinds of media, sometimes for profit and sometimes
not, you won't get very far in a court of law.

For the third of fourth time, (and no-one has countered this 
yet) read the usenet primer from news.announce.newuser -- it 
tells you point blank that what you post here is in the public 
domain unless you copyright it.

The law may be different, but when you voluntarily participate
in a public forum, you agree to the rules.  The monthly
postings to news.announce.newuser contain the guidelines and
rules which your presence here agrees to.

Those postings also tell you that you cannot control where your
posts go on usenet: so ridiculous little attempts to do so in
your .sig carry no weight as your presence here indicates your
agreement to the rules imposed by the owners of the equipment
which you are using.

Posting a silly little copyright notice restricting copying 
within usenet is like copyrighting your telephone calls and
limiting distribution to the lines you like between you and
your destination (or like saying "No fiber-optics.")

Grow up!  You sound like a two-year-old screaming "Mine! Mine! Mine!"
(This directed to all those crying about how they own what they
give away.)
-- 
"25 States allow anyone to buy a gun, strap it on, and walk down the street with
no permit of any kind: some say it's crazy.  However, 4 out of 5 US murders are 
committed in the other half of the country: so who is crazy?"   -  Andrew Ford
gtephx!forda@enuucp.eas.asu.edu  OR  !uunet!samsung!romed!enuucp!gtephx!forda
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