Re: The net as an aid to infringement

[Neiman-Marcus "two-fifty" urban legend deleted]

The two-fifty story has been circulating around the net since practically the day it was born. It's the #3 most posted urban legend, after Craig Shergold (the boy who doesn't want any more cards) and the 1987 modem tax story. I mention it in my ``The Internet for Dummies'' as one of the stories not to pass along since most people have heard it and there's not a shred of evidence that it's true in any of its forms.

It's been around in various forms since at least the 1940s as the Red Velvet Cake recipe story, the Neiman-Marcus cookie story, and the Mrs. Fields Cookie story. It was sent by mimeo long before it was sent by computer.

As far as I can tell, it was never copyrighted in any of its forms, except incidentally when mentioned in a book.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl[_at_]iecc.com, jlevine[_at_]delphi.com, 1037498[_at_]mcimail.com Received on Sat Mar 26 1994 - 00:37:19 GMT