X-Message-Number: 1138 From: Subject: Letter to Paul and Saul re copyrights Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 16:13:41 PDT Saul Kent 16280 Whispering Spur Riverside, CA 92504 Paul Wakfer 1220 E. Washington St., #24 Colton, CA 92324 August 10, 1992 Dear Paul and Saul: I would be addressing this to Saul alone, but yesterday at the Alcor board meeting Paul claimed joint responsibility for the second edition of "It's Time For A Change" and the copy sent to me has Paul's return address. As Paul and I discussed briefly, I consider your use of material which I posted to the 0014 thread on CryoNet to be a probable violation of copyright and certainly a violation of net protocol. This material was *not* written to "bulk out" your book attacking Carlos. Including my posting entirely, and making 125 copies of it, certainly takes this matter well beyond any stretching of the "Fair Use" doctrine. At this point, the damage is largely done since Paul told me he had shipped 75 copies. Had you asked, I might have given you permission to use the material I had written for CryoNet, but it certainly would have been with several conditions. First would have been a short explanation as to net protocol and the special meanings attached to punctuation strings such as :) and :-( for those who are not up on net customs (I presume this applies a majority of those to whom you sent your book). They are (when you turn your head sideways) respectively a smiley face and an unhappy one. The method to include attributed copy from a previous posting by either indenting or some number of > should be made clear as well. Second, I would have asked for a more equitable cutoff point. Either an even number of postings and replies, or a mutually agreed cutoff point with Steve. I can supply you with the fourth in the series if you do not already have the text. In fairness, you should have also included my posting replying to Brian. In it I was supportive of his position, and offered to help. We only differ in the definition of "possible budget," with Brian being rather more expansive than I am. Third, I would have asked that you get permission from Steve and Brian to include their material. I am also very concerned with your inserting a letter (also without permission) from Carlos without the letter it was replying to. and the earlier matter of inserting a limited-distribution communication from Tanya without her permission. It seems to me that a reasonable response for the two of you (in light of the problems I have pointed out in the second edition) would be 1) to implement the three points above in the stock of books you still have, 2) to supply a list to me of the recipients to date and 3) to copy and mail the missing material as described above to the list of those to whom you have already sent the second edition. I would also require that you give the ready-to-mail bundle to Alcor to mail. As an economy measure, you may want to see if you can include material to satisfy Carlos as well. I hope you see that there is an issue of courtesy and fairness involved here, and that the two of you are willing to correct it to the extent possible. In the future, I strongly suggest you seek permission before making a lot of copies of anybody's writings. Please note that all written works (especially mine!) are copyrighted under the 1989 law even if a copyright notice is not included. Also, posting to a private mailing list does not put written material into the public domain. If you have any doubt, please consult Title 17 USCA, Section 117, any recent book on copyright, or a copyright lawyer. Sincerely, H. Keith Henson (Sent by email, hard copy on request.) Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1138