I appreciate the feedback and wish to thank everyone who has made
a contribution.
We already had a warning about the use of copyrighted material, and
did followup with warnings/expulsions, etc, when people did send
copyrighted material to the list. The contention of the lawyer
for the Press Association was that this was not enough, any posting
of their material would be considered a violation. So even the "no
warning, you are immediately expelled into the darkness forever"
approach seemed like it would not satisfy.
After extended email with their lawyer, I was able to cut through the
legalese and reach the issue that bothered them. It wasn't the
question of publishing the material, but it was how we said it.
We listed some publishers who had already conversed with us, and who
had asked us not to forward their material. (Back about three years
ago, I attempted to contact several newspapers. Some wrote back that
they thought it would be OK, a couple wrote back and said no, and most
ignored my mail.) I had explicitly listed those firms who had asked
us not to forward their content. Their lawyer was concerned that
The Press Association was not listed there. I suspect she thought
this meant we were encouraging the forwarding of their material.
We changed the wording of the FAQ to explicitly ban all copyrighted
material without listing any specific publishers.
Now, why they couldn't get to this point without threats of criminal
action, and the like, I don't know. I guess that is how some lawyers
operate.
(Of course, I have my doubts that they could successfully prosecute
me, a Californian operating solely within California, under British
law, but then again, Tennessee has done this with some success.)
--
James C. Armstrong, Jr. | "Using Windows NT, which is known to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | have some failure modes, on a warship
| is similar to hoping that luck will
| be in our favor." Anthony DiGiorgio,
| on the US Navy's decision to use
| Windows NT instead of UNIX.
