----- Original Message -----
> Really!! Legal cite, please?
>
> Because the Bern Convention on Copyright says otherwise, and has been
> US Law since, when was it, '86? '89? Something like that.
==================================================
The Berne Convention was far from only about copyrights. Mostly, it covered
artistic materials but was written in 1971 greatly predating email and all
of its spam-esque anomalies. And I've never heard Heyward referred to as
artistic. _Autistic_, perhaps. ;^)
For starters, the poster doesn't have a copyright on the written material as
I seriously doubt they deposited two copies with the US Copyright office of
their "creation". Secondly, it came to me via email though Yahoo. I didn't
go to it. Sure I subscribe to the list but I do not subscribe to the
original author. That makes it unsolicited, from the poster. Yahoo
expressly claims unlimited redistribution rights of any submitted material.
Also, since this is an "open" list, "fair use" redistribution is granted by
the list server. It's black & white in their Terms of Service.
Then there's the concept of "fair use". This allows limited uses of
another's work without approval of the author. Uses that advance public
interests such as criticism or education are favored as long as the original
author is cited. And man oh man, are these lists ever rife with criticism.
;^) This is as much implied as any copyright of the material in question.
It also can't really be considered "intellectual property" because nobody is
willing to pay the owner to use it such as is the case with books, magazine
articles or music. The owner of commercially valued property has a legal
right to prevent others from using the property without payment or
permission. But since this particular material has no commercial value the
"intellectual property" argument just doesn't fly.
To put it plainly, it isn't physical property either so that dog won't hunt.
I have a greater claim to the pictures I have posted on my Geocities web
page as copyrighted material. And I know of several places on the web that
have (technically) illegally posted copies of my pictures.
Your turn David. Care to cite case examples of email copyright
infringement? Oh yes, check out _my_ new disclaimer below.
Eric Linnhoff
www.geocities.com/eric10mm/KnuckleDragger
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone
you may still exist but you have ceased to live."
Mark Twain
WARNING: I reserve the right to use any email you send
to me as either a testimonial of how great our world is, or
as an example of the stupid things people send to me via
email. If you do not want your email to be used in such a
manner, DON'T SEND IT!
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