On 7 Jun 00, at 16:34, Istvan Berkeley wrote:
> ...I think
> that RFC 1855 is misleading here. The issue is really one about
> copyright.... My understanding is that, for the purposes of the
> law e-mail should be treated like a letter. If I send a (private)
> letter, or e-mail to you, whilst you own the physical object (or virtual
> object in the case of e-mail), I would still hold the copyright on the
> content.
I asked about 'netiquette' and tried to leave aside the question of
whether it was *LEGAL* to forward a message on to other forums....
not because it is an uninteresting or unimportant aspect of the
question, but for two reasons:
1) AFAIK it has *NEVER* been tested in court, and so when you say
"should be treated like a letter" I'm pretty sure that you [or your
legal-advisor] is just guessing/analogizing. And because email is
used for so many things [and indeed, private email will almost
certainly if/when the law gets around to dealing with it, be
addressed separately from email sent knowingly and intentionally to
an unrestricted public forum] I think that the final 'analogy' will
end up being a LOT more complicated than just 'like a letter'.
2) Apart from copyrights and the matter of 'fair use' there's a
secondary question of implied-license. When an author chooses to
'broadcast' their work to an unrestricted public forum, they have
_clearly_ conceded *some* copying-rights. But exactly which rights?
And to whom? And under what circumstances?
And we have thrashed that out some [and it does surface again from
time to time as moderators claim "compilation copyrights" and such],
but I was really asking the somewhat "squishier" question --- if you
will, it is the _precursor_ to deciding what the law ought to say:
thinking about what's "right" and "proper"...
And I didn't really weigh in with my thinking on this [I just tossed
out the 'teaser'], so let me rectify tha: I said that I thought it
improper to repost without permission... I have two reasons why:
1) public is not necessarily public. A person might dislike or
disapprove of some forums, or have bad blood with some of its
participants or for any or no reason NOT want their stuff to appear
_there_ [even if they might be otherwise mellow about its being
reposted someplace else]. If you don't ask permission the author
doesn't get the chance to inform you of their preferences.
2) The person is separated from the discussion [and perhaps debate!]
engendered by their reposted comments. This seems pretty unfair --
they don't have a chance to defend themselves, to correct
misconceptions, to answer and expand on questions that arise.
Someone commented about how it is inappropriate to put in a prologue
"Look at what this idiot said...", but even without the prologue,
posting the words themselves in a 'hostile' forum might get the same
reaction.
/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--
