Sun, 17 Oct 1993 22:43:37 +0100
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I see a number of problems with this copyright notice:
1. It is US-centric in its references to law. It is fairly common in our
network to have the author of a posting in (say) Sweden, the list in
the US, and an archive server in Canada from which someone sitting in
Korea will retrieve a posting. You just can't assume US law applies,
and there are differences. To take a concrete example, in the US
you're not allowed to make a copy of a CD to a tape to listen in your
car (most people do it anyway, but that's another matter). In France,
it falls under the provision for "copies for the private use of the
copier", and there is nothing the record company could do about it.
2. There are a number of statements of the type "...like with any other
list" where the preceding statement is not a given. A list is like a
private club, you can set up pretty much whatever conditions you want
as long as they are not unlawful. To take an extreme case, one might
publish a set of regulations and make everyone return a signed copy
before being added. To take a concrete example again, granting anyone
permission to repost anything is not something I would consider
self-evident. While it makes sense to repost technical advice Joe sent
to the XYZ-L list to Mary who asked the same question on the ABC-L
list, you will want to ask Joe's permission for postings of a more
personal nature. Another example is draft papers, which you don't want
forwarded around without your permission.
What worries me in fact is that the notice sounds more like guidelines
than like a disclaimer. For instance, it sounds like it is telling people
that it's ok to forward any posting from a list member without asking,
when in fact what you wanted to say is that the list moderator can't be
held responsible if this happens, because he has no control over the
subscribers.
Eric
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