I have remained silent so far because most of my concerns were already addressed by others. I am however, appalled about using people's writings in any published form without proper attribution. THAT could create huge problems at some future point. To me this seems a form of plagiarism! I own several lists which are at least in part frequented by academics. Several of us write posts that are (or can become) parts of future journal articles and books. The list is non-confidential but our notebooks are privater and only listmembers are authorized to send mail. When people ask if they my cite something I have posted on the web I am delighted to give permission under the condition that I am clearly identified to keep from being myself accused of plagiarism at a later time. Last year I presented a paper at a conference based in part on a flame-war precipitated by a very hostile individual who had joined our forum specifically in order to attack our fairly liberal idea of Catholicim. I subsequently decided not to publish the piece anywhere, including the web, because she would not have given permission, and as the author she holds the copyright to her words. As for "fair use" it is limited to fairly small parts of written works which must be cited in order to review or discuss the work. Citation involves name and date of publication. Ingrid Shafer [log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask] http://astro.temple.edu/~arcc http://192.146.206.5/www/faculty/shaferi/index.html