Re: who owns newsgroup discussion thread?

On Wed, Oct 13, 1999, Ivan Hoffman <ivan[_at_]ivanhoffman.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/12/99, Stanley M. Morris <smmorris[_at_]rmi.net> wrote (in reference to
> my post directing readers to my article entitled "C Rights in E Mail"):
> >
> > Absent usegroup notices, isn't a post to a discussion group more
> > like converstion on a multi-party line, or the proverbial public
> > square? The Supremes in Reno v. ACLU likened the Internet to the
> > telephone which generally is not subject copyright. Different
> > context, I realize, but once a comparison is made the S.Ct.
> > generally is unlikely to let go and adopt a contrary analogy.
>
> I don't see this at all. A telephone conversation is not fixed in a
> tangible medium of expression and otherwise does not seem to qualify
> for copyright protection.
>
> I would again commend the above article which can be found under the
> link "Articles About the Internet and Electronic Rights."

More and more telephone conversations are recorded/stored in some doozy retrieval system on our computers. Seems at that point they could be considered as "fixed."

Linda Burton, U of Washington
<cpc93[_at_]u.washington.edu> Received on Thu Oct 14 1999 - 15:53:09 GMT