Timothy C. May writes
Funny, I don't recall Eric ever claiming it was "his house" to do with as he wishes. Seems to me that the list is an emergent entity, presently being centrally distributed off a machine owned by John Gilmore [...]
Internet custom and precedent, as I understand it, seems to be that Usenet newsgroups are the collective property of the regular inhabitants, but that mailing lists are the private and individual property of the guy whose account they run out of. Even the commies on alt.politics.radical-left seem to be reluctantly and painfully accepting this doctrine. I am amazed that an ex-extropian does not. We can advise Eric that we think it might have an undesirable effect if he manages the list in certain ways. We cannot tell him that it is unfair or unjust to manage the list in certain ways. The extropians list claimed to be managed in accord with the principles of justice. Eric makes no such grandiose claim. The debates concerning ownership on extropians occurred because of that claim and, in my judgment, because the claim was obviously bogus.
I happen to think Eric is quite wrong in thinking that "behavior modification" is needed, or practical. The list has done very well for the past 26 months without rigid rules, and has never even had a person kicked off the list (who didn't ask to be removed, back in the pre-Majordomo manual processing days)).
agreed. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we James A. Donald are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. jamesd@acm.org