ho@buengc.BU.EDU (Yue-shun E. Ho) (05/23/89)
It occurs to me that a certain mailing group is publishing selected Usenet articles in their digests without the authorizations from the original posters, although the name of the newsgroup and those of the authors are mentioned. I wonder if this is acceptable and/or legal. Are Usenet articles copyrighted in any way? I questioned one person who does this about its legalities through e-mail. He explained that this is justifiable because (1) the information in the articles are important and urgent; (2) the newsgroup which he extracts articles from is open to the public; (3) he could simply strip off the msg titles and pretend that he wrote all that; (4) he believe that the news posters want the news spreaded out as wide as possible "because of <1>. In case this is not so, it doesn't matter anyway because <3> will override it."
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (05/23/89)
In article <2938@buengc.BU.EDU>, ho@buengc.BU.EDU (Yue-shun E. Ho) writes: > It occurs to me that a certain mailing group is publishing selected Usenet > articles in their digests without the authorizations from the original > posters, although the name of the newsgroup and those of the authors > are mentioned. I wonder if this is acceptable and/or legal. Yes and yes. In fact for some sites usenet is accessed entirely through mail. News/mailing-list gateways abound. Just because a person chooses to select what messages go through the gateway doesn't change anything. > Are Usenet articles copyrighted in any way? Five pounds of flax. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.
pete@ittg.UUCP (2301) (05/25/89)
In article <4272@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <2938@buengc.BU.EDU>, ho@buengc.BU.EDU (Yue-shun E. Ho) writes: >> It occurs to me that a certain mailing group is publishing selected Usenet <<< 1 >>> << 2 >> >> articles in their digests without the authorizations from the original >> posters, although the name of the newsgroup and those of the authors >> are mentioned. I wonder if this is acceptable and/or legal. > >Yes and yes. In fact for some sites usenet is accessed entirely through <<< 1 >>> What constitutes infringement of copyright laws is probably not appropriate here. Especially since the publisher (author) has given his/her permission to duplicate his/her work to every machine on the net(s) that electronically reproduces that work in it's entirety. This discussion really belongs in 'misc.legal' not 'news.admin'. << 2 >> I selectively receive news articles here at 'ittg.UUCP' because my supplier and I have agreed to transmit selectively. Are inferring that one or both of our machines is violating copyright? Come on, let's get serious. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pete Sherwood pete@ittg.UUCP uunet!usm3b2!ittg!pete Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe, Princeton, Maine Voice 207-796-2301 8-4 EDT ============================================================================