Archiving mail-lists...

["Alan (Miburi-san) Wexelblat" <wex@media.mit.edu>]

Ah, the old I'm-not-a-lawyer-but-I-play-one-on-the-net.

Problem with Jason Zions' position:
	- Not at all clear that Berne applies to electronic mail, even of a
personal nature
	- Not at all clear that postings to a publicly-read list like this
are not equivalent to speech in a public place (ie not necessarily
copyrighted)
	- Not at all clear what the status of private communications is vis
a vis publication.  The courts in the US seem to be flip-flopping all over
the place in a couple of recent cases involving correspondence used to write
biographies (one of L Ron Hubbard sticks in my mind and I forget who the
other was about).

You can't just wave your hand and say the magic word "Berne" and thereby
prevent someone from archiving, reposting etc your messages to this list.

--Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker, Author, and Cyberspace Bard
Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group	wex@media.mit.edu
Voice: 617-258-9168 Page: 617-945-1842		an53607@anon.penet.fi
All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.