Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00233)

At 08:31 AM 11/12/97 -0800, Eldon B Tucker wrote:
>Hi. I'm writing a brief piece on intellectual rights and the
>ethics of mailing lists. Following is a draft of some early
>thoughts. I'm posting it to both theos-talk, theos-l, and
>ti-l for comments from the three respective groups of writers,
>because I'd appreciate feedback from writers on these lists.
>
>-- Eldon
>
> A posting is the intellectual property of its writer. When someone
> submits an article to a magazine, the magazine gets copyright for
> use of the article as part of an integral whole. It may not reuse
> the article separately nor in other contexts. These other rights
> to the article belong to the author.
>
> Posting something to a mailing list is effectively submitting an
> article to a magazine. The author has implicitly given copyright
> to the list to publish the work. That includes the initial posting,
> the quoting in replies, and the inclusion of the piece in the
> list archives.
>
> Reposting an piece to another list, or on a news group, is effectively
> reprinting an article in another magazine. This is something that
> should not be done without the author's permission. Sometimes
> there may be *implicit* permission. That is, it is clear by what
> is written that it is fine with the author to repost (republish)
> the work. Whenever it's not clear-cut, it's always best -- and
> quite easy -- to write the author.
>
> It's also acceptable to cite small portions of a work in a
> critical review. When that review is held on another list or
> news group, though, there's the question of intellectual
> honesty. The small portions quoted from a single message in
> an on-going discussion can easily be out-of-context, and
> wildly misrepresent the nature of the discussion and what
> the writer was saying. This can range from a mild misrepresentation
> of the author's views to bitter back-stabbing in a place where
> the author is not present to defend themselves. If someone
> wants a similar discussion on a different list, it's quite
> easy to simply make a few statements, perhaps including some
> ideas that they disagree with, and let things go from there.

The whole issue of intellectual property rights on Internet and etiquette
(if any) is still very much in evolution.

Right now, anything goes is what is going. Even if the rights issue is
sorted out, enforcement of any violation is going to be impossible.

...mkr...