On Fri, Apr 16, 1999 at 11:33:08AM -0400, Tom Neff wrote:
> ISSUE #1 - PUBLIC LIST DIRECTORIES
> ==================================
> Topica and Liszt claim (and most list admins would agree) that they're
> entitled to compile directories of publicly accessible mailing lists,
> without being considered rude or evil. If in the course of doing this they
> "harvest" previous directories published others, thereby falling afoul of
> someone's compilation copyright and getting the lawyers interested, that's
> their problem, but it's no skin off the nose of your average list manager.
Correct. Topica/liszt/whoever also must realize that if *they* want
to make this the cornerstone of their business, it is they who bear
the burden of figuring out how to do it without spamming listowners,
without violating copyrights, without providing unwanted "features"
that some of us consider bugs (e.g. web-based subscription forms)
and so on.
Is that tough? Yeah, it is. But it's hardly our responsibility as
listowners to teach these people how to run their business. We owe
them *nothing*, and they owe us *everything*, because its our hard
work that they're trying to make a profit on.
> ISSUE #2 - SPAMMING LISTOWNERS
> ==============================
> They also seem to think they have the right to conduct unsolicited bulk
> emailings to the registered owners of the lists they find, alerting them to
> the joys of yet-another list service, inviting them to opt in or out of
> yet-another directory, and so forth. They are DEAD WRONG about this [...]
I completely agree. I've already submitted them to several blacklists
because of their spamming activities.
> ISSUE #3 - UNSOLICITED ARCHIVING
> ================================
> This is another area where they could really get their you-know-what caught
> in the wringer, but they seem to know it already. I would encourage
> listowners to assert a COMPILATION COPYRIGHT on the contents of their lists,
> both in the materials sent to new members and in the INFO and FAQ files, and
> in a once-per-month administrivia reminder.
Once again, I completely agree. All of the lists that I run have
the compilation copyright explicitly assigned to me, and I fully
expect that to be respected.
As far as I can tell, Topica is just a bunch of greedy johnny-come-latelies
trying to make money off work they didn't do, and now whining because
their motives and their methods have both been called into question (or
exposed for what they are, e.g. spamming).
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
