X-Message-Number: 1126 Date: 11 Aug 92 02:55:38 EDT From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Copyright Query for CRYONET Keith Henson maintains it is a copyright violation to put a CRYONET posting into a volume with other letters and postings, to print 125 copies of this volume and to distribute it free to a number of people, all signed up cryonicists. I disagree. My reasoning is: 1) All the recipients could sign up on CRYONET and get it themselves. 2) He agrees that if I copied it and distributed it to a few (number unspecified) friends this would not be a copyright violation. 3) I am not selling the volume containing his posting. Furthermore, in order to be fair and complete, I included all the postings in the sequence containing his, that were available when the manuscript was put together. I now make the offer to supply him with address labels for those to whom the volume was sent, so that he can send his last posting, the one which did not get included, if he will agree to also send any further postings in the sequence. Responses, at least to the copyright question, would be appreciated. [ Paul, before diving into the technicalities of copyright law, it may be useful to first view this as primarily an issue of "netiquette", not law. The people of the USENET community have an expectation of nearly unlimited electronic redistribution of their messages. People on publicly accessible mailing lists (such as this one) expect somewhat less electronic redistribution, but still to an unknown number of people. (Some mailing lists, such as the Extropians mailing list, have more restrictive policies.) But as soon as the messages become a "product" or a "publication" or show up in massive quantities in hardcopy, then people start to get nervous. It's kind of like unexpectedly seeing your picture or writing on the front page of the New York Times. So my "Miss Manners" suggestion is to first send email to the authors of the messages to let them know that you intend to produce a large number of hard copies for personal, non-commercial use, just so that nobody gets surprised and upset. If, by chance, someone disapproves, then you have some negotiation to do, but at least you can avoid unnecessary upset and concerns of potential copyright violation by asking first. - KQB ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1126