Kirk Sheppard says:
On Tue, 1 Feb 1994, Chris Knight wrote:
<Perhaps we should try this. You sell archives of the net, and we'll file <a class action suit... I'll back up my beliefs with actions, how about you?
This appears to be merely hot air, since despite all his talk Master Knight hasn't taken any "action" and it is doubtful that he has the money or other "necessities" requisite for doing so. Also, notice the term "beliefs", which explains a lot. I thought were were having a discussion on a legal or academic basis, not one involving religeous or philosophical "beliefs" or faith.
Archives of the net are already being sold. Furthermore, some folks at the FBI got a newsfeed from uunet years ago by magtape when they didn't have a direct uucp link. I'd say that anyone who thinks they can actually succeed at such a suit is welcome to try, but I wouldn't break a sweat worrying about it. Yes, you have a copyright over your work -- however, once you've posted it to the net it is likely practically impossible to restrict distribution. Since you've already allowed it to be distributed on demand to anyone for free it is hard to claim damages if it is distributed to anyone via some medium you don't like. Archives of all of usenet already exist. I was talking with Eric Fair at Usenix about using a Cray at Apple to produce an index of all usenet traffic thus far -- it likely won't happen, but those worried about such possibilities are welcome to have their lawyers send me nasty letters. If you want your stuff to have limited distribution, you have to make a conscious effort to limit distribution or you have likely lost all cause of action. Posting to the net is likely implicit concent to unlimited distribution, since it is in fact what will happen and you have no reasonable expectation of anything else. Perry