> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Jon Gabriel
> Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 10:20 PM
> To: Brin-L
> Subject: I need a reality check on aisle 2
>
>
> I'd like to ask the list for a reality check.
>
> I have made clear that I feel Jeroen is threatening list members. I have
> also made my opinion clear about that: I think it's inappropriate
> for a list
> owner to exercise his power in this way.
>
> Would some active listmembers please weigh in and offer their
> opinions? I'd
> like to know if I'm off base or out of line.
I'll weigh in and be blunt about it. The list owner/list member distinction
you're making is b.s. Call me a pinko communist, but I don't believe that
on-line communities can be owned. They have administrators and managers,
but they're owned by the people who participate. If an on-line community
only has managers, then there's nothing to own.
The intellectual property created on the list clearly belongs to the
individual authors of messages. Although there well may be broad implied
rights to copy those messages, there is no way that the list managers have
any more IP rights than the authors. This is not, by any stretch of the
imagination, comparable to work for hire.
I think we (Internet users, that is) are very slowly realizing that we are
publishers. Not just authors, not just people talking, but real publishers
with the attendant rights and responsibilities. Got that? *You*, person
reading this message, are a publisher when you post to this list. We are
members of the royal publisherhood of all authors, to paraphrase 1 Peter 2:9
(again).
Who is liable if I libel someone on this list? Jeroen? Cornell? I don't
think so. It'll be me or nobody. That's not to say that some idiot might
sue them, but God forbid they should win.
Jeroen is voluntarily acting as an *administrator*, not an owner. As far as
I'm concerned, anybody who uses the word "owner" to describe what he does is
shirking responsibility. If he wants to play Nixon and create an enemies
list, that shouldn't threaten the list any more than if anyone else did so.
It does only to the extent that the rest of us elevate him to a priesthood
of list "ownership". As if.
I could have "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" up and running in minutes. Any of you
could do the same via a number of free hosting services. It's only here
because we stick around, which is where his administrative power comes from.
I haven't seen Jeroen abusing the power that arises from his volunteer role;
in fact, he seems to constantly emphasize that he won't do so. What seems
like an abuse of his power is actually a failure of others to recognize
their own freedom, in my opinion.
So, I think the behavior of list "owners" should be a non-issue. I publish
my baloney, Jeroen publishes his, everyone else publishes there. And when
we have conflict, we work it out as equal participants, as co-owners, not as
if we were in a private publishing environment where the person with the
keys to the office can also fire you. We *all* have the keys. (Another
Reformation allusion, for those who are keeping track.)
Nick
