Rick Faircloth wrote:
> 
> Why is protecting your "work" (personally, I wouldn't
> classify answering questions people post to this list as "work")
> in an absolutely unchanged state so important to you?

The imperative is not "work" but "original work" because that is 
a key concept in copyright law. Also, it doesn't have to be 
absolutely unchanged. I don't have a problem with reformatting or 
representing in an indented thread. I would for instance even 
welcome the archives reflowing messages as per RFC 3676.


But if I write something on a subject and recommend vendor X, I 
consider it a substantial change if suddenly every occurence of 
<subject> were to be linked to vendor Y. A vendor which I may not 
know or worse, have bad experiences with.


> And, personally, (and I know the law is probably against me
> on this one), I think that once a person responds to a public list
> that is owned and operated by someone else, the response you
> make should become part of the "public domain"...no longer
> personal, private property.

The law is not entirely against you, but you don't forfeit all 
rights*. Sending a message to a public mailinglist pretty much 
means you give people the right to use that message. But that 
does not include the right to substantially alter the message 
while still representing it as being written by me. If you do 
that by accident over the list now you get an offlist request to 
be more carefull.

Jochem

*Some IETF mailinglists I am on have you agree to another clause 
when you sign up that does make it official that you forfeit 
pretty much all rights, which does make sense when you are 
discussing future standards that need to be without strings for 
implementers. But that is something you agree to beforehand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble 
Ticket application

http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48

Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:203691
Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4
Unsubscribe: 
http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54

Reply via email to