who owns newsgroup discussion thread?

Is it permissible to post an entire thread (culled from DejaNews) from a newsgroup (example: alt.examplenewsgroup) on to a commercial website without permission of any of the posters?

This topic has come up recently in one of the newsgroups to which I subscribe. This is a public, unmoderated newsgroup (alt.fashion) which discusses, among other things, commercially available products, companies, and services. A commercial website http://www.beau-t.com/main.html, unaffiliated with the ng, has posted the thread of a recent topic discussed recently on the ng having to do with a certain manufacturer's products, and competitor's companies, comments which are unflattering to the manufacturer and company, to say nothing of the fact of violating copyright of all the posts.

The original posters to the ng complained to the http://www.beau-t.com/main.html that the website violated copyright by posting the entire thread, without permission. The webmaster replied they could do whatever they wished because posters no longer own their comments after they are publicly posted.

Meg Schimmels, LMS
MSchimmels[_at_]kscable.com Received on Sun Oct 10 1999 - 20:12:39 GMT