Re: RC: RE: Phil Gardner's letter in April EN Mailbag

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Tue, 13 Apr 1999 13:04:27 EDT, Tivers@aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 4/13/99 5:46:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time, lbm@ici.net 
>writes:

><< 1.  Was Joe Long's post copyrighted?
 
> Yes.  Absolutely.  Sorry, Mike, but there is no question of it. >>

>Cite the law, please. This is not a matter of opinion, but of law. 

It sure is.  The relevant law is explained at the Copyright Office of
the Library of Congress, website URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

>Again, 
>once an author "publishes" in an open non-copyrighted public forum, those 
>words are fair game. While it is true that as soon as words are put to paper 
>they are automatically copyrighted, once the author contributes them to the 
>public domain, they are no longer protected. Even if Joe had put a copyright 
>notice on his words, they would not have been protected within this forum. 

False, as explained at the above URL.  You can find the actual law at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/

Mike was right to say that it is generally fruitless to go to court
over an infringement of an e-mail, as you would get far less in
damages than it would cost.  That does not alter the fact that the
infringement is illegal as well as unethical.

-- 

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


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