On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, David Honig wrote:

Jim, how do you feel about on-line collections, e.g., the venona and inet-one.com archives?

[IMHO they are technically infringing our copyrights, but I personally think they perform a service ---slightly more for historians than for spammers.]

I sent a set of questions to the list a while back about people wanting their submissions removed from this or that archive. I got to thinking about it and decided that it probably does infringe copyright. This was one of my concerns when we started the CDR. It was why I wanted at least one 'public domain' source of information, to ensure it wasn't censored through litigation over 'ownership of ideas'. It's also one of the reasons I keep the much maligned 'CDR:' in there, it's a way of identifying what 'user license' it was submitted under (ie none). It's also why I haven't ever run a archive myself. My personal feelings are that I don't believe in the concept of IP. I believe that it is an unnecessary constraint on the advancement of society for the mere reason of stabalizing (or slowing it down depending on ones view) an economy for individual gain. It's not ethical. As insane in my view as assigning 'rights' to a business. But, from a practical point if I can use them to make a point I feel justified in doing it. I like the almost Zen irony, stabbing oneself with ones own sword (figuratively speaking of course). ____________________________________________________________________ We have to hate our immediate predecessors to get free of their authority. D.H. Lawrence The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------