emv@umix.UUCP (Edward Vielmetti) (05/12/86)
Morris Jones (mojo@kepler.UUCP) reports that CompuServe has explicitly reserved copyright to all information that you get from them, and that you may not copy or retransmit said information. I am not doubting his authority (after all he's a sysop there), but I do doubt the legality of this approach. What it seems to mean to me is that any software that I have written that I upload to CompuServe I lose my rights to; that whatever I say on a CompuServe forum I assign CompuServe the exclusive rights to, ad nauseum. As a sysop, I for one will abide by this rule for what it's worth: nil. (c) 1986 Edward M. Vielmetti, All rights reserved. (Actually, I'm doing this at work, so it's probably (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan, though they don't know that.) emv%Umich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-Multics.ARPA
phil@portal.UUcp (Phil Sih) (05/15/86)
In article <138@umix.UUCP>, emv@umix.UUCP (Edward Vielmetti) writes: > Morris Jones (mojo@kepler.UUCP) reports that CompuServe has explicitly > reserved copyright to all information that you get from them, and that > you may not copy or retransmit said information. > > I am not doubting his authority (after all he's a sysop there), but > I do doubt the legality of this approach. What it seems to mean to me > is that any software that I have written that I upload to CompuServe > I lose my rights to; that whatever I say on a CompuServe forum I assign > CompuServe the exclusive rights to, ad nauseum. > > As a sysop, I for one will abide by this rule for what it's worth: nil. > > (c) 1986 Edward M. Vielmetti, All rights reserved. > (Actually, I'm doing this at work, so it's probably (c) The Regents > of the University of Michigan, though they don't know that.) > > emv%Umich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-Multics.ARPA Comments welcome on this: I would guess one of the reasons organizations like Compuserve, BIX, and others say they own what you write, upload, etc., is because they regard themselves in the business of reselling your information and have perhaps taken their cues from the publishing world. Many people regard the special interest groups on Cserve as their greatest source of equity (and customers) and it would only seem 'human nature' for them to want to protect it and keep it to themselves. As I see it, this can't work in reality. Suppose one of their users says something rude regarding someone else and that person decides to sue. Odds are that Cserve would be the first to disown responsibility for that ostensibly 'owned' piece of writing. The same could be said for programs, or whatever now on their system. It is probably just a matter of time before they run into this problem. Then we will see what happens to their claims to ownership of users' transmissions. What might seem more sensible would be a model of ownership more like that of a bulletin board, where the sysop doesn't have any particularly acknowledged right to the material uploaded to or entered into his board, nor does he bear any specific liability. (Although the Tcimpidis case and others would contradict this.) But I mean by stated agreement. Opinions anyone? Phil Sih at Portal Communications Company, Cupertino, CA {lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!portal!phil lll-lcc!vecpyr!atari!portal!phil ucbvax!sun!portal!phil
CC.GALVIN@R20.UTEXAS.EDU (Pete Galvin) (05/17/86)
According to my recent COMPUSERVE newsletter (a letter therein), CompuServe is claiming just that...that all postings there are theirs. As I understand it (no, I'm not a lawyer), they can only claim the rights to the COLLECTION as a whole, since they DON'T own the rights to all of the parts (programs, etc). As such, anyone can use any individual part(s) of the collection, but not the whole thing. At any rate, I doubt very strongly that they would have any recourse at all if I downloaded a program from them in which the author claims copyright (and allows free use of the program) and then uploaded it to my favorite local bboards. I haven't the foggiest if they can claim rights to any generic text a user posts to their SIGs (i.e. no explicit copyright), as in the list of patches to DOS 3.2, etc. --Pete -------
JAZBO%BROWNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (James H. Coombs) (05/17/86)
One cannot copyright information. Acknowledge-To: James H. Coombs <JAZBO@BROWNVM>
jmc@ptsfa.UUCP (05/19/86)
Perhaps the simplest way of bypassing CompuServe's copyright claim is
to mark anything that you post with a 'public domain' or copyright
notice of your own and explicitly allow copying. In their magazine,
they stated that anything marked to allow distribution was ok to
distribute. Their attitiude is that the poster owns the work and that,
strictly speaking, posting a copy is not equivalent to allowing
unlimited redistribution. (Naturally they want everyone to pay them
connect time fees for downloading files rather than make copies
locally :-)
--
voice= 415 823-2441
uucp={ihnp4,dual,qantel}!ptsfa!jmcche@ptsfb.UUCP (05/24/86)
In article <931@brl-smoke.ARPA> CC.GALVIN@R20.UTEXAS.EDU (Pete Galvin) writes: >According to my recent COMPUSERVE newsletter (a letter therein), CompuServe >is claiming just that...that all postings there are theirs.... > >At any rate, I doubt very strongly that they would have any recourse >at all if I downloaded a program from them in which the author claims >copyright (and allows free use of the program) and then uploaded it >to my favorite local bboards. Actually, I think most authors (who are careful about copyrighting their software before it goes out for general distribution) would find it interesting to see Compuserve try to sue for damages. Since they have no rights to the original work, I would think they are not in a position to seek recourse. Compuserve is just trying to "scare" you into downloading on their time, although I doubt they are very serious about this. They have a reasonable service, although I do most of my downloads from GE's GENIE now. Only $5/hour for 1200 baud.... Much better than $6.50/hour for 300 baud..... (So there, CS..) -- Mitch Che Pacific Bell --------------------------------------- disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer, too (415) 823-2438 uucp: {ihnp4,dual}!ptsfa!ptsfb!che