Alan Wexelblat writesK
Ah, the old I'm-not-a-lawyer-but-I-play-one-on-the-net.
Problem with Jason Zions' position: - Not at all clear that Berne applies to electronic mail, even of a personal nature
Hey, it's clear to me.
- Not at all clear that postings to a publicly-read list like this are not equivalent to speech in a public place (ie not necessarily copyrighted)
That's not the measure of copyright. It's whether the expression has been instantiated in a tangible medium.
- Not at all clear what the status of private communications is vis a vis publication. The courts in the US seem to be flip-flopping all over the place in a couple of recent cases involving correspondence used to write biographies (one of L Ron Hubbard sticks in my mind and I forget who the other was about).
They flipflop because of the trickiness of Fair Use--there's no hard-and-fast rule as to what qualifies.
You can't just wave your hand and say the magic word "Berne" and thereby prevent someone from archiving, reposting etc your messages to this list.
True, but you can say "Berne" and settle the issue of copyright. --Mike