Re: Phil Gardner's letter in April EN Mailbag

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Sat, 10 Apr 1999 09:38:43 -0700, "Mike Sofen" <miksof7@gte.net>
wrote:

>Joe, I agree with all of your opinions re: fees, and am glad you expressed
>them so clearly.  One small point on copyrights, however - even though
>technically it may appear you can copyright your email, in reality all
>emails and newsgroup chat are automatically in the public domain and thus
>unavailable to copyright.

I believe you're mistaken on this.  Your words are your words, unless
you explicitly release them to public domain.  Publishing is
publishing, whether in a book, newspaper, or Internet maillist.
Publishing on Ridecamp no more ends your right to your words than
tacking up a copy of an article you wrote on a bulletin board would do
so.  You are free to publish your own work in any media, even the
Internet, without giving up your rights to that work.

Another example:  broadcasting is a public media, over public airwaves
-- but every broadcast is copyrighted nonetheless.  If you were to
tape a program for your own later viewing, there is no problem, but
just try taping an NBC program and airing it on a cable network
without NBC's permission!


-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal


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