Re: Greg Lindahl's attitude bothers me!

From: lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Garrett R Le-Page)

Date: Fri, 05 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000

>I don't expect people I chat with in the hallway at work to record my
>conversations and play them on the radio.

Most people would not bother.  Still, what would be wrong with such an
act.  It would simply require you to stand behind your words.

Now for the arbitrary standards:

>		Frequently Submitted Items

>This document discusses some items that occur repeatedly on USENET.
>They frequently are submitted by new users, and result in many
>followups, sometimes swamping groups for weeks. The purpose of this
>note is to head off these annoying events by answering some questions
>and warning about the inevitable consequence of asking others.  If you
>don't like these answers let spaf@purdue.edu know.

>[...]

>32.  Are there any restrictions on posting e-mail someone sends to me?

>     At a minimum, it is only polite for you to contact the author of
>     the letter and secure her or his permission to post it to the net.

>     On a more serious note, it can be argued that posting someone's
>     e-mail to the net without their permission is a violation of
>     copyright law.  Under that law, even though a letter was addressed
>     to you, it does not grant you the right to publish the contents,
>     since those are the work of the author and the author retains
>     copyright (even if no explicit copyright mark appears).

>     Basically, your letters are your intellectual property.  If
>     someone publishes your letters they are violating your copyright.
>     This principle is well-founded in "paper media," and while
>     untested in electronic forums such as Usenet, the same would
>     probably apply if tested in court.

Copywriting is the bugaboo of internet.  Internet, the bastion of free
speech, get government regulation out of here, I says what I want to say
wannabees.  Yet, you take their "intellectual property" and they start
calling their lawyers.  Here is a simple fact:  Unsolicited mail that is
note specifically labelled as copywrited is not going to be considered as
copywrited material for the sender.

Now, email falls into many catagories.  Personal mail between aquaintances
is the most common.  This is as sacred as any personal honor that you may
wish to possess.  Mail in response to postings.  Can either be positive
or negative.  This is fair game in most cases.  If it is in response to a
question posted, then it should be treated as a personal email.  If is
unsolicited, then it is simply an extension of the Newsgroup thread and
should be treated as such.  I really frown on this sort of mail.
Especially, in that it can be edited and reposted as your own words.
Best to avoid sending this sort of email (it is frequently insulting and
threatening...i.e. why it is not posted).  Then there is mail that is
sent to you only because your name is on a list.  Fair game as well.

This is almost related to PBM;)

Garrett

References

Re: Greg Lindahl's attitude bothers me!
pyrich@cris.com (John Pyrich)
Thu, 04 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Greg Lindahl's attitude bothers me!
skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)
Fri, 05 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000