From: turtle@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca (Barry Hutsel)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Illegal Satellite Pickups
Keywords: copy right
Date: 2 Oct 92 23:13:43 GMT
Reply-To: turtle@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca
Distribution: ont
Organization: Vicuna Systems, Kingston, ON (613) 547-5066

pacolley@ember.UUCP (Paul Colley) writes:

> 
> Civil means more than that.  If a cop finds me breaking somebody's
> window, he'll arrest me.  It's illegal to go break people's windows.
> 
> I can gleefully copy books in front of a cop all I want.  Copyright
> is a civil matter.  Copying material, even copyrighted material,
> is not illegal.  It's the copyright holder who has to sue me.

Absolutely right.  The copyright laws offer protection for individual 
ideas and it is the responsibility of the individual to assert their 
rights and file suit if they are violated.  However, just because no one 
cares or you are so remote from the person who does care, does not remove 
your responsibility to respect that right.

> 
> In fact, I do REGULARLY copy copyrighted material.  I don't break
> copyright.  There are a number of reasons I can do this legally:
> 
> 	- Copying my own stuff (there's an example in this posting).
> 
> 	- Fair use of somebody else's material (there's an example
> 	in this posting)
> 
> 	- Copying with permission (you may recall my quest to
> 	convert a wordperfect file, done with the permission of
> 	the author).

There are probably more situations, but we'd have to check the actual 
copyright law to be certain.

> 
> But even if I do it unfairly, without permission, of somebody else's
> stuff, it's NOT necessarily going to be a problem!  Without checking
> with the owner, you can't tell if he even cares.  Even if the
> copyright owner cares, it doesn't matter unless he does something.

Assuming your sense of what is right and wrong is different from those 
who devised the copyright laws then you can go ahead and copy and use 
copyrighted material to your hearts content.  You do, however, leave 
yourself open to possible law suits if, for some reason, the owner does
decide to "care".  For example if you take someone elses ideas and then 
claim them for your own, that person may then decide not to be so 
agreeable to your actions.

In the situation of the satallite signals, believe me, the company 
producing and distributing those signals does care!!


> P.S.
> I have used as _an_example_ the assumption that articles posted to
> ont.general remain copyright.  This is a topic that often causes
> long, drawn-out debate.  If you don't agree, please substitute the
> obvious examples from a correspondence example (letters on paper,
> sent by Canada Post).  I'm aware that the issue is not settled.
> 

Technically, I believe that all ideas placed into a written from are 
copyrighted as soon as they are placed in that form.  I assume this would 
also apply to ideas placed into electronic form as they are on the net.  
One way to assure that all those reading your material understand that it 
is infact copyrighted is to place the copyright symbol on the document.

If you give me some time on this, I'll check the actual copyright law and 
post a summary.  Later . . . 

        --Barry          Copyright C 1992

----------------------------------------------------
turtle@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca (Barry Hutsel)
Vicuna Systems BBS - 613/547-5066 [9600 v.32/.42bis]
Newsgroups: ont.general