Re: New Copyright Publications of the LII

Glenn Tenney writes:
>
> The point is that once you post something to a public list, it is
> copyrighted, but so what... its distribution list could be ever
> expanding -- and then we start to consider archiving... or simply placing
> all posts from this list onto a CD-ROM for those "subscribers" who don't
> have email... All of these are nothing more than extensions to the
> distribution list in different electronic forms.
>
> It is not the copyrighting of our posts that's the issue, it's what
> happens after the post goes out the door that's the issue.

Which means that the interesting question is this: you write a message to a list, prefacing it with the remarks: "Please do not forward copies of this message to anybody not already a member of this list, and don't archive it for others' access."

Now somebody ignores this comment and resends the message to another list of 500 folks. Can the message originator sue the one who forwarded the copies?

        --Trotter Hardy

  +-------------------------------+------------------------------------+
  |  thardy[_at_]mail.wm.edu           |     Prof. I. Trotter Hardy         |
  |  Voice: (804) 221-3826        |     Marshall-Wythe School of Law   |
  |  Fax:   (804) 221-3261        |     College of William & Mary      |
  |  BBS:   (804) 221-1137        |     Williamsburg, VA 23187         |
  +-------------------------------+------------------------------------+