Pleading the 5th

[Jim Choate]

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).

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