Dear fellow listowners
 
A psychiatrist has just surfaced on vwar-l saying that he is writing a book
about the effects of the Vietnam War on veterans and their families and that he
would like the members of the list to send him their stories either on or off
the list.
 
While I realize that the members of the list are free to correspond with him I
would like to know:
 
Is there any "official" legal or ethical position on scholars using a list for
data collection without notifying the members of that list that he is doing so?
(Even if no one responds to him directly he could pick up quite a lot of data
from the posts to the list and the logfiles.)
 
What is the copyright status regarding postings to the list?  It seems to me
that they should be protected under the Bern convention.  Can a scholar
reproduce a posting to a list in a book or article without the permission of
the author?
 
Thanks very much!
 
Lydia Fish (fishlm@snybufva)
Listowner vwar-l@ubvm