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Re: [nafex] Re: copyright & "terms of use"





PermacultureNo1@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 12/14/00 9:29:47 PM, ginda@concentric.net writes:
> 
> << Well, perhaps we can agree on a workable compromise.  Most posters to
> this list probably don't mind having their work passed along to others,
> at least in a minor, noncommercial way, with attribution.  A few do.
> Not being a lawyer, I don't know exactly what the law allows, but I am
> interested in both passing useful information to friends and in
> respecting the wishes of authors.
> 
> Could I request that posters who don't want their posts reproduced at
> all, to anyone outside the list, include a note to that effect?  I, for
> one, will respect it.  Those of us who don't make a living selling words
> may be less sensitive to their importance to those who do, but can
> certainly understand a direct request.
> 
> Ginda
>  >>
> 
> If you don't want your car stolen, you should put a sign in the window.  Same
> principle.  :-)
> 

Not really.  Unlike NAFEX posters, the vast majority of car owners would
prefer you leave their car alone.  So the cars owned by people who feel
that way don't need an additional sign.  I think putting a copyright
notice into your posts is more along the lines of writing your kid's
name on his clothes before sending him to camp.  It increases the odds
that people will do the right thing with it when it's not in your hands.

I have been in ambiguous public/private places (big parties,
conventions) where I have put my name on an item, such as my copy of the
map of the building, to decrease the odds that it will wander off if I
leave it lying on a table.  Maybe that's a better analogy.

I have just been browsing a website with many designs by the world's
greatest living puzzle designer.  (Maybe the all-time greatest puzzle
designer.)  http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/apartint.htm
Although he made his living for most of 30 years designing, making, and
selling puzzles (with occasional forays into canoes and beads), and used
to patent his designs, he has always said "yes" when asked if someone
could use them.  Now that he is retired, and doesn't want to get too
much mail, I see he has issued a blanket statement that his designs are
in the public domain.  My husband trades computer code for free, and
there is a large contingent of "free software" fans.  (I means, people
who write the stuff who think it should be free, not people who just
want to take other people's stuff.)  So even among the creative
community, opinions are mixed.

Wishing you the best from my banana-hostile clime,

Ginda Fisher