To: "Sergio Dall'Omo" 
cc: online-news@planetarynews.com, tindall@enquirer.com
In-Reply-To: 
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-online-news@marketplace.com
Precedence: bulk
Status: RO
X-Status: 


	Jeff's comment would mean that anyone who subscribes to AR -- a
daily news publication delivered via email through a listserv -- would
have the right to republish anything in AR, despite the copyright notice
in every edition.  I think Sergio's note cuts to the heart of the matter. 
Jeff is correct insofar as Usenet, I think, and may have a good case
insofar as free mailing lists that don't carry a copyright notice. I
generally regard all material on both systems that is not expressly
copyrighted as material in the public domain, although I would not go
further than "fair use" excerpting in republishing it.  I think the
permission aspect with such non-copyright material of a non-personal
nature is a matter of journalistic strategy, not ethics or law.  There are
many ways in which speaking here as I am now is similar to speaking in
open court.  It is freely available to everyone with minimal effort, and
there is no exchange of value involved.  There are unwritten and written
but unseen contracts with Steve, but I personally feel those are of
dubious probative value.  I'm not sure as Sergio says that this
planetary-news universe is sufficiently self-limiting to earn real copy-
right protection.   Moreover, I don't think there's any case law out 
there which says it is; to my knowledge, the copyright protections of
authorship in cyberspace mailing lists have never been established.  

Best,

Joe Shea
Editor-in-Chief
The American Reporter
joeshea@netcom.com
http://www.newshare.com/Reporter/today.html


On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Sergio Dall'Omo wrote:

> Jeff Tindall wrote: 
> 
> > My understanding is that ASCII text published on USENET is in the public
> > domain.  I'm not at all sure about mailing  lists, "public" or otherwise.
> > Seems to me if the only requirement for membership to a mail list is sending
> > a subscribe command, that's pretty public.
> > It's the equivelent of standing on the streetcorner and thumpin'
> > a bible or whatever. It's a public forum, just like a courtroom is. If
> > you spoke up in a courtroom and what you said was quoted in the
> > newspaper the next day, you wouldn't go cryin' about how they didn't ask
> > permission first. You pays your money and you takes your chances. 
> > BTW, does "express permission" mean you'll give it really really fast?
> 
> My two cents.
> There is a deep difference between Usenet and Listserv. In the former 
> case you speak to all the people in the Internet, so it is clear your 
> intention to have your opinion in the "public domain". Moreover 
> Usenet is a public Internet service.
> In the latter, because of your "subscribe" command to be inscribed in 
> a list (that as a rule is private) you don't clearly express the 
> intention to be in the "public domain", but you clearly express the 
> intention to be in the domain of the subscribers.
> As a consequence, only all subscribers can use for themselves the texts
> they receive in their own e-mail boxes, but cannot spread the content 
> without the express permission of the author.
> The Netiquette (on e-mailing) is clear on this matter. A Listserv is 
> only an extension of a one-to-one communication, that is to say 
> one2a-limited-group of subscribers.
> At the end, is a matter of style.
> 
> Sergio
> 
>   
> ----------
> dott. Sergio Maria Dall'Omo
> new media & new techs senior editor
> ----------
> IL GAZZETTINO
> via Torino 110,
> 30172 Mestre (Venice)
> ITALY
> voice 0039,41,665409
> fax 0039,41,665389
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> "Through IT, the publishers abolished the typographers,
> "through the Internet, the journalists may abolish the publishers,
> "But, through the Internet, people may abolish the journalists"
>                                                Myself
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
> This message was posted to ONLINE-NEWS. http://www.planetarynews.com/o-n.html
> 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This message was posted to ONLINE-NEWS. http://www.planetarynews.com/o-n.html

From owner-online-news@marketplace.com Thu Aug 29 23:58:05 1996
Received: from marketplace.com (majordom@marketplace.com [206.168.5.232]) by cnj.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id XAA20436 ; for ; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 23:58:04 -0400
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by marketplace.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA14875 for online-news-outgoing; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 19:22:38 -0600
Received: from server.indra.com (server.indra.com [204.144.142.2]) by marketplace.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id TAA14866 for ; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 19:22:32 -0600
Received: from indra.com by server.indra.com (8.7.4/Spike-8-1.0)
	id TAA07087; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 19:12:11 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from ux6.cso.uiuc.edu by indra.com (8.7.4/Spike-8-1.0)
	id TAA08096; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 19:12:10 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from canberra-11.slip.uiuc.edu (canberra-11.slip.uiuc.edu [128.174.23.217]) by ux6.cso.uiuc.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id UAA10937 for ; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 20:11:35 -0500
Message-Id: <199608300111.UAA10937@ux6.cso.uiuc.edu>
Comments: Authenticated sender is