At 8:48 AM -0400 10/21/98, Bill Truesdell wrote:
>Truth is we are in unexplored territory in using posts in newsgroups in
>newsletters. Is it the same as a letter to the group and therefor the
>groups property? It will be interesting to see how this falls out,
>especially since copyright law seems to be for the monetary protection of
>the author. And if someone posts in a forem, such as this, are they giving
>up such rights? I don't know.
 
All the things you mention are covered under current copyright law.  If you
send a letter to someone, that person owns the *copy*, but has no rights to
the content. By default, an author is automatically guaranteed
copyright on any bits of writing as soon as they are created (you don't
even need to add a copyright symbol anymore). Nothing goes into the
public domain unless the author explicitly assigns it so -- even when there
isn't any money involved.
 
Even for letters to the editor, this is still the case.  Usually the
newsletter or newspaper has to inclue a statement in the section along
the lines of "all letters become the property of the newspaper" BEFORE
the author writes the letter.  The act of submission assigns the rights
to the newspaper or group, but *only* because its explcitly spelled out that
way.
 
"Fair use" is another issue, and kind of sticky.  Fair use usually only
applies to select passages of a work.  Small ones.  You'd have a very
hard time arguing that reproducing an entire posting from the net
counted as fair use.
 
But there hasn't, to my knowledge, ever been a court case yet which
challenges whether net publishing (writing for newsgroups or mailing
lists) is different from real publishing, or just what fair use means
in the context of a net posting.  Until that happens, however, its
safe to assume that current copyright law applies.  Even if it
didn't, this isn't "uncharted territory".  We have conventions
for the reuse of postings on the net, conventions that were set years
and years ago.
 
If you want to reuse someone's posting in any medium other than the list
or newsgroup, net or otherwise, then ask the original poster for
permission.  Its as simple as that. You certainly won't fall afoul of any
laws that way, and its the safe, ethical, *nice* thing to do.
 
Sorry to be so stringent in my very first BEE-L posting, but this is one of
those things that I see come up again and again and that people seem to
be continually confused about.
 
And while I'm here:  I'm looking for a source for hives (just a couple)
in the San Francisco Bay Area to get started beekeeping next year.
Shipping from other states is really expensive, and I'd like to find
something closer.
 
Thanks.
 
Laura