On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, J C Lawrence wrote:
<policy info snipped>
> Posting to the list may be considered analagous to having a
> conversation in my living room using bull horns while the
> windows are open and everyone has tape recorders. There is no
> secrecy, or control of the dissemination of data once it is
> posted.
<snip>
> That little piece of text has been amazingly successful in
> helping to mold and stay the list character.
A list charter is very important for a successful list. You need
to set some ground rules which are appropriate for your forum.
I disagree with some of your details, particularly with regard to
copyrights. In practice, you can't guarantee that no one on the
list will republish or redistribute someone else's work without
permission. Legally, I doubt that you can force your $ubscribers
to relinquish their copyrights buy simply posting a notice.
Usually, both parties must formally agree to a contract before it
is considered a binding agreement.
My copyright notice follows (list name PML). This hasn't been
checked by a lawyer. It is consistent with my understanding of
current copyright law. It's also consistent with common
netiquette.
COPYRIGHTS:
All material posted to PML remains the property of the original
author. If you wish to republish or redistribute any articles
from PML, contact the author for permission. Please cite PML
as the original publisher when republishing PML articles. Do
not post copyrighted material, such as news articles from the
web, to PML without permission of the copyright holder.
Paraphrasing, brief quotes, and pointers to articles of
interest are OK.
If anyone would like to reuse this copyright notice, you're
welcome to do so. It is offered free of restrictions and with no
warranties whatsoever.
- murr -
