writing & copyrights in cyberspace

["L. Detweiler" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>]

Joe Thomas <jthomas@pawpaw.mitre.org>

>I don't see how enforcement of  
>copyright will be possible under crypto-anarchy any more than  
>taxation will be.  If one person pays for a posting, what's to keep  
>him from sharing it anonymously with whomever he wants?  Is there any  
>way that crypto-anarcy won't bring the death of "intellectual  
>property"?

This subject has interested me for a long time and I've posted on it to
the list a long time ago. There was a recent article by someone in CUD
(I forget who) that closely reflects my own thinking. Since this is
kind of a borderline relevant list topic, I won't include it here, I'll
just give the reference:

>Computer underground Digest    Wed  Sep 29 1993   Volume 5 : Issue 76
>                           ISSN  1004-042X
>
>File 2--the Cyberspatial Copyright

The author talks about using digital cash and a sort of shareware
system, and also makes reference to the idea of hypertext links that
charge tolls when traversed, all based on the idea of digital cash.

There are numerous CUD FTP sites, but see e.g.

ftp.eff.org:/pub/cud/cud/cud5.76.z

note: if you retrieve the file without the .z suffix the system will
automatically decompress on the fly.

Also, this is not the first time I've seen a reference to the Xanadu
system. It must be pretty influential but I haven't gotten around to
reading about it yet. Anyway, precise reference:

AUTHOR(s):       Nelson, Theodor Holm.
TITLE(s):        Literary machines :  the report on, and of, Project Xanadu
                   concerning word processing, electronic publishing,
                   hypertext, thinkertoys, tomorrow's intellectual revolution,
                   and certain other topics including knowledge, education and
                   freedom /  Theodor Holm Nelson.
                 Ed. 87.1.

                 Swarthmore, Pa. :  Theodor H. Nelson,  1987.
                 1 v. (various pagings) :  ill. ;  22 cm.
                 Includes bibliographical references.

OTHER ENTRIES:   Word processing (Office practice)
                 Microcomputers  Programming.
                 Electronic publishing.
                 Self-publishing  Data processing.
                 Project Xanadu.

Finally, I have a lot of collections of postings from mailing lists on
the subject, e.g. related to an article in Wired by M. Chrichton ``The
Death of the Media'', but will not dig them out without a sufficient incentive <g>