To everyone with any concern about the M100SIG "NoVan" issue, I'm posting the following.
After I was in direct communication with Wilson Van Alst back in the mid 2000s, I had replaced my downloadable copy of the M100SIG archive on Web8201 with the "NoVan" version that John graciously put together. But after several conversations with various people on the subject many years later, including Rick Hanson before his passing on the subject, I made the decision to put the original archive back in place on Web8201, and I do intend to keep it that way. To Steve and some others, I know you feel differently about this, and I figure I should at least share with you my perspective. There is one primary justification for my feelings on this subject: All of the files from the M100SIG, including Wilson's contributions, were available publicly and free to download by anyone with an internet connection and without any account login for a number of years on CompuServe.com. You see, after the demise of the CompuServe paid service, they still allowed you to just visit compuserve.com and visit the "archived" areas of all of the special interest group areas, including M100SIG, and download any of the files there, for free, without any login. I did it myself in fact, many times. There was no need to login with an account, and there was no required acceptance of a licensing agreement. They were simply downloadable, for free, with no binding agreement and with no account. CompuServe was basically allowing the public full access to the ENTIRE special interest group archive. I even brought that up with Wilson directly via an email exchange, but he declined to comment about this specific fact. So any argument about "Commercial Software" is inconsequential at this point. Since the files were available publicly on compuserve.com, they have every right to be available on any website, including archive.org as well. There is no legal issue with redistribution given they were available publicly on compuserve.com before it eventually went away. And on the topic of ethics, I would argue that the long-standing feud between Wilson & Rick was about the only thing that caused Wilson to put up a stink about the files to begin with, and any question of the ethics of redistribution of Wilson's stuff that was PUBLICLY AVAILABLE already is pretty baseless. Gary Weber Web 8201 On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 9:17 AM Brian K. White <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5/26/20 12:10 PM, Stephen Adolph wrote: > > That is what I said, yes. I simply and politely asked if you (supposing > > it was you that posted it) could do something about it. > > > > So I will ask again, politely. > > > > Can and will anything be done about it? As I have said, I think, if > > possible, that the M100SIG should be removed from the internet archive. > > I posted it. > > It's the same as the copy Gary has been hosting on web8201 forever and > still today. > > I don't know if I can take it back down, but I assume I can, or that I > can at least ask. > > I am answering politely that I don't know yet whether I will try. > > -- > bkw > -- Gary Weber [email protected]
