Re: archiving on inet

[Jim McCoy <mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

Jason Zions <jazz@hal.com> writes:
> 
> > Others could argue that postings by their very nature, when posted 
> >become "public domain", and thus not copyrightable.
> 
> Not successfully in court, I should think. How is a posting any different
> than the production of a radio program which is distributed by
> store-and-forward satellite distribution and then played through the radio
> station and received at your home radio? [...]

It is the difference between "broadcast" and "interactive communication."
Tell me, if I call in to the talk show you are distribute as part of your
radio program, do _I_ now own the copyright to a portion of your show?

> >Finally what is the tangible difference between storing usenet postings 
> >on [any particular storage media]
>
> If you were a ligitimate recipient of the work in the first place (i.e. got
> it in a newsfeed) and you store those postings for your own use or for the
> use of others on that node in the store-and-forward network, then you can
> keep the work 'til the bits rot. Infringement occurs when you copy those
> bits onto some medium for some purpose other than store-and-forward
> propagation or the allowed fair-use exceptions; stuffing articles on a
> CD-ROM and selling them falls into neither category and hence is an
> infringement.

Buzzz.  According to your logic all that one needs to do is to change the
label on the order from from "Usenet articles on CD-ROM" to "Quarterly
Usenet Feed distributed on CD-ROM" and I am in the clear.  I am not selling
a collectoin containing your articles, I am providing a low-bandwidth
newsfeed to those who do not have the same level of connectivity you have
or that want the excitement of seeing thier newsfeed delivered over the
"original information superhighway" (aka postal services.)  It is still
store-and-forward, it is just store-forever-and-forward-not-so-often.

But under all the smoke and mirrors nothing changes the fact that I am
selling archives of the Usenet.  No amount of puffed up indignation is
going to change the fact that your Usenet posting or message to a mailing
list is of no real value to you and is honestly as free as a bird once it
hits the wire.

jim