Charging the net...

[CNEWS MUST DIE!]

gardner at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Gardner) writes:
> 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.

In America, perhaps. Yet another transatlantic legal difference.

> 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.

I think that's fair enough; and I would argue that connecting to Usenet DOES
constitute solicitation of material, since you must explicitly request from
your feed site that the material in any given newsgroup be sent to you.


mathew