I forwarded the recent messages asking about whether or not listserv can
own a copyright to Mary Brandt Jensen, a librarian and attorney, and
leading copyright expert. She gave her permission to post her replies
back to the list. She does not watch this list regularly, but is on
cni-copyright for those who are really interested in the topic.
dan
*****************************************************************************
* Dan Lester Bitnet: alileste@idbsu *
* Associate University Librarian Internet: [log in to unmask] *
* Boise State University *
* Boise, Idaho 83725 BSU and I have a deal: I don't speak *
* 208-385-1234 for them and they don't speak for me. *
*****************************************************************************
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>***************************************************************************
>
>COPYRIGHT (C) 1992 BY A. NONYMUS LEE.
>COPYRIGHT (C) 1992 BY THE FOOBAR REVISED LIST PROCESSOR,
> [log in to unmask]; NANCY ANN BARFOO, LISTOWNER.
>All rights reserved.
>
> This document may be freely copied and distributed on a noncommer-
>cial basis using whatever medium desired. The copyright holder(s)
>reserve(s) the right to determine what is, and what is not, a noncom-
>mercial basis. All commercial use requires prior written permission.
>Every copy of this document must include a statement of authorship, the
>copyright notice(s) and this paragraph.
>****************************************************************************
>Neat, no? Not to mention innovative?
>Excepting the obviously camouflaged names, this is the statement that the
>author of a specialized new networking document proposes to append to the
>document. The document will be on my filelist, so I have a mild interest in
>its appropriateness, although the Listserv receiving interest in the copyright
>is at a far distant site.
Someone who holds a copyright has the right to license that right and
to license only a part of it if he wishes. Since the right to make and
distribute copies is one of the copyright holder's rights, he can give
a limited permission to do so. That is what this appears to be an
attempt to do.
>The author says that it's his intention, in the remotely possible event that
>his production should ever see print and receive royalties, that half of said
>royalties go to the designated Listserv to help defray the cost of its mainte-
Not all that remote. I know of such a document that is indeed going to
be published commercially and the author's permission statement is now
coming back to haunt him.
>nance. He says that he doesn't see why software can't hold copyright if a
>trust, which is only a piece of paper, can do so. He doesn't want to assign
The trust is a legal entity even if only a fictional one like a corporation.
The software is not a legal entity and thus cannot hold rights.
>copyright to the list itself because of the problem of representation of the
>list, which he thinks could only be resolved by incorporating the list - and
>that he considers to be a fruity idea.
Why not just keep the copyright himself and when it does generate revenue
send checks for half the amount to the people then currently running the
list. Then he can change his mind later with no problems.
>Let the flak fly.
>Kathryn Wright
>Indiana State University
>======================================================================== 44
>Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 18:45:23 +0200
>Reply-To: ListServ list owners <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender: ListServ list owners <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Eric Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Can Listserv hold copyright?
>To: Multiple recipients of list LSTOWN-L <[log in to unmask]>
>Come on, a piece of software can't own a copyright. I know that US law is
>particularly complex, but the day computers can own copyrights or real
>estate, we will be in serious trouble.
The day we make them legal entities they will be able to own all of that
stuff.
>I suspect he means the money would go to the organization running the
>server in question. I guess he wants to write "COPYRIGHT 1992 WAHOO
>UNIVERSITY", which should not create any problem (assuming the authors of
>individual contributions accept all this copyrighting business).
It doesn't matter what the individual contributors accept. It only matters
what they have explicitly or implicitly agreed to and what the law is.
>>He says that he doesn't see why software can't hold copyright if a
>>trust, which is only a piece of paper, can do so.
>Why doesn't he talk to a lawyer instead of making random statements? How
>does [log in to unmask] decide whether to accept or reject a purchase
>offer for the rights of XYZ-L? Do the various lines of code vote? Do they
>get one vote each, or as many votes as they were executed in the last
>year? Can lines which were eliminated by optimizing compilers appeal and
>request a share of the votes of adjacent lines? :-)
> Eric
.======================================================================== 145
>Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 13:04:00 EDT
>Reply-To: ListServ list owners <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender: ListServ list owners <[log in to unmask]>
>From: "Peter M. Weiss +1 814 863 1843" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Can Listserv hold copyright?
>To: Multiple recipients of list LSTOWN-L <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: LIBKAT AT INDST.BITNET -- Sun, 16 Aug 1992 10:36:06 EST
>>Let the flak fly.
>Before the flak and fur flies, we might want to review the previous
>discussions on copyright/wrong in these notebook archives, as well
>as join in on the discussion group called cni-copyright (on a NON-
>Revised Listserv at cni.org).
>> search copyright in lstown-l
>--> Database LSTOWN-L, 29 hits.
>
>> index date.8 sender.30 subject.40
>DATE SENDER SUBJECT
>---- ------ -------
>90/04/18 [log in to unmask] Copyright
>
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