Re: We are ALL guests (except Eric)

[jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)]

Timothy C. May writes
> Funny, I don't recall Eric ever claiming it was "his house" to do with
> as he wishes. Seems to me that the list is an emergent entity,
> presently being centrally distributed off a machine owned by John
> Gilmore [...]

Internet custom and precedent, as I understand it, seems to be 
that Usenet newsgroups are the collective property of the
regular inhabitants, but that mailing lists are the private
and individual property of the guy whose account they run out
of.

Even the commies on alt.politics.radical-left seem to be 
reluctantly and painfully accepting this doctrine.  I am 
amazed that an ex-extropian does not.

We can advise Eric that we think it might have an undesirable
effect if he manages the list in certain ways.  We cannot
tell him that it is unfair or unjust to manage the list in
certain ways.

The extropians list claimed to be managed in accord with the
principles of justice.  Eric makes no such grandiose claim.

The debates concerning ownership on extropians occurred because
of that claim and, in my judgment, because the claim was obviously
bogus.

> I happen to think Eric is quite wrong in thinking that "behavior
> modification" is needed, or practical. The list has done very well for
> the past 26 months without rigid rules, and has never even had a
> person kicked off the list (who didn't ask to be removed, back in the
> pre-Majordomo manual processing days)).

agreed.


-- 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we        James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.            jamesd@acm.org