Re: archiving on inet

[jazz@hal.com (Jason Zions)]

   So if I sell (at a profit) a netnews feed to subscribers via modem, it
   is not copyright infringement, but if I sell the same data on a CDROM,
   you cliam copyright infringement.

Yep. When you're providing a netnews feed, you're acting as a node in a
store-and-forward network. A CD-ROM is not a part of a store-and-forward
network; it is a permanently fixed repository of information. You can't hold
up a netnews feed in a courtroom and point at it saying "there it is"; you
*can* do so with a CD-ROM.

   So I suppose you want to give some
   kind of list of what types of media are acceptable for transmitting
   netnews feeds, and which are not?

A CD-ROM isn't a medium for transmitting netnews feeds; it's a permanently
fixed copy of the contents of such a feed. Static versus dynamic; permanent,
ephemeral. Is this hard to understand?

   The plain and simple fact is: When you post a message to usenet, you do
   so with the expectation that others will receive it.  You can have no
   way of knowing or limiting who may get it; that is given by the nature
   of the network.  Usenet news is, and is intended to be, publicly
   accessable information.  If there is something you don't want
   distributed, then DON'T POST IT!

Learn a little about law; while you're at it, learn a little about usenet.
When you post a message to usenet, you have tossed it into a flood-routed
store-and-forward network. You implicitly give permission for copying
appropriate to the propagation of messages in that network. You neither
grant permission nor withhold permission for Fair Use. Everything else,
though, is not granted unless explicitly granted.

If I post a message, under the terms of the Berne Convention and current US
copyright law, a recipient was not granted the right to print a copy and
publish it in a book. What makes you think I granted them permission to
publish a copy in a CD-ROM? The only permission I granted was that they
could (a) read it and (b) forward it via usenet protocols.

Jason