Sam> Under US law ...
Well, we are under international copyright here. My observation was that "Mailing Lists" (Debian's or otherwise) are suddenly claiming copy-rights as if they were officially registered periodicals, and that such a claim is not legal. Please note that we are talking about "mail" here (we are not talking about "articles" or other forms of literature), and mail is subject to more strict rules withing the general copyright code. Mail is in fact private, in the US as well as any modern country. In the UK, for example, there are only two person who can read an addressed mail: the receiver and the Queen. By posting to a "mailing list", you are posting to a number of people; it is like making a xerox of your mail, then post it to a number of people. The mere fact that you are posting to 100 friends rather than 1, does not make your mail a journal article. The fact that your mail is in electronic form rather than ink on paper, does not make your mail a journal article. The fact that one of these people may be the editor of a journal, for example, does not entitle this person to publish your mail in his journal. Electronic-Mail is Mail. As such, it is private, unless there is an "explicit agreement" that says otherwise. In the specific case with Debian, there was and there is no "explicit agreement" that entitles Debian to archive the mail we were and we are posting to each other. On "www", by putting the mail online Debian is actually publishing the mail, and this can not be done, unless there is an explicit agreement that authorizes Debian to do so. Given the importance of this discussion, and the fact that it may be indeed of-topic for the "www" and "list" lists, I invite the interested correspondents to post to "legal". As I am not subscribed to any of them, please Cc to my mail address directly. Sergio ------------------ >Subject: Re: request >From: Sergio Brandano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Sat, 05 May 2001 16:02:33 +0100 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], > debian-legal@lists.debian.org, > debian-www@lists.debian.org >Cc: Sergio Brandano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Gerfried Fuchs > Do you read all the agreements you sign? Of course I do. And if I do not like an agreement, I simply do not sign it. In the case with Debian, there is no such agreement; as if there where one such agreement, then any material posted in its lists would be a Debian copyrighted material, i.e. it would display a "(c) Debian" in it. The author of any past and present Debian posts is still the owner of the copyrights, and can withdraw his posts at any time, unless there is some other special agreement in that sense. Please note that "agreement" is not something that you have to accept; an agreement is an act of freedom, and Debian can not make any claims of ownership based on the mere fact that an author has sent an email to a list of people. Please read below. From: Florian Lohoff > Why not sending out an text on list subscription where the subscriber > agrees that his emails will be set under a special license like the > Open Content which states that the original author has to be named > which is the case inthe archive as the "From:" line is shown. > > In software we prefer open source and most people even like the GPL > whereas your contribution to a project is automatically set under the > GPL. Why not doing the same for the list archive. Its a contribution > to the Debian Project and IMHO we should treat it the same. Thank you Florian. This is indeed the right interpretation. I am glad of your message. --
