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Index of Subjects Hi Flora, I think it would be hard to argue this in court (jurisdictional issues aside) given that what Birding on the Net is doing is providing a mirror of information that is already public and on the net. Naturens already maintains an online archive and naturens is itself a public forum. Birding on the Net doesn't charge a fee for accessing the information (hence they are making no direct profit from the information). Posts to naturens can be construed as public speech (like someone standing on the proverbial soapbox at Hyde Park corner) and while copyright may implicitly still reside with the authors, these posts are made with the intent of being public. If Birding on the Net were to archive this material and then attempt to charge a fee for making it available, then it might be a different matter. My $0.02. Cheers! Chris On 21-Feb-08, at 9:11 AM, Wild Flora wrote: > I can't imagine any theory under which Birding on the Net would NOT be > violating copyright law. > > The authors own the copyright to emails we write unless we > explicitly assign > them to others. Posting to the list gives the list the right to > print our > emails, but it doesn't extend that permission to anyone else. > > The fact that this list is "public" in the sense that many people > read it is > not relevant. Material I post to my blog is even more public than > what I > post here, but I still own it, and nobody has the right to use it > without my > permission. > > For more on this, check the Wikipedia entry on "blog scraping." > Although > this practice relates to the use of blog entries without > permission, what > Birding on the Net is doing is basically the same. Note that the > Wikipedia > states in no uncertain terms that it is illegal. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_scraping > > What's more, if Birding on the Net is putting our email addresses > online at > a permanent site, it is exposing all of us to a giant increase in > the amount > of spam we receive. Spammers have software that searches the > Internet for > expressions that contain the "@" sign in order to find addresses to > send > spam to. > > Wild Flora > > -----Original Message----- > From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens- > owner@chebucto.ns.ca] > On Behalf Of Doug Linzey > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:02 AM > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] birdingonthe.net > > Ulli comments: > >> As it >> is done right now I see it as a case of copyright violation by > birdingonthe.net, >> unless the owner of NatureNS gave permission (but then it should >> be in the > >> NatureNs user agreement). > > That's not a bad idea. We could certainly include a line about the > lack > of privacy in the welcoming message that goes out to subscribers. The > fact is that NatureNS is a public list. It's not moderated, and anyone > can join. As administrator I can deny access to a any given e-mail > address, but that's a last resort sort of thing, which fortunately we > haven't had to do for quite a while. > > It's unwise to post anything to any e-mail list that you wouldn't want > the world to read. > > Cheers, > Doug Linzey >
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