Charging the net...

[Mike Gardner]

mathew at mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:

>For example, when you broadcast a TV program, the copy a person receives is
>not the property of that person; he is not allowed to tape it and keep the
>tape copy indefinitely, nor to sell the tape copy to other people.

I agree with your direction, but your examles are faulty.  The courts have
ruled that "time-shifting" with your VCR is legal, and there is no time
limit on how long you can keep the tapes.  You cannot however, sell them,
copy them or otherwise make money off of them.

Maybe a better analogy would be people sending things to me in the mail
unsolicited.  If I get something in the mail without requesting it, then
it is MINE, free.   Does the process of connecting to Usenet and receiving
these newsfiles constitute solicitation of material?  If so, then you
must abide by the requirements of the sender.  If not, then it's yours to 
keep, but not sell, duplicate etc.

>Part of the problem, once again, is whether Usenet counts as a broadcasting
>medium, a set of publishing companies, or some combination of the two.

Many news organizations deliver copy through a very similar arrangment, yet
retain copywrights on the material.

>Let's try to throw aside some of the legal uncertainty. I originally stepped
>into the debate because I want to see shareware on the net, and I want to be
>able to post things which I write without losing copyright control over them.

For sure!

>I propose that a poll be taken to determine how many Usenet readers object to
>shareware and copyrighted software, and how many do not. We should then
>separate the PD-only people from the shareware-copyrighted-and-PD people,
>with the largest side getting to keep the existing named newsgroups and the
>other side having to start new groups.

>Accepting a feed of a shareware-or-copyrighted sources / binaries group would
>then be considered an informal agreement to either obey the license
>agreement / copyright restrictions for each program or delete that program.

Just doit!
mgg