Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 07:35:02 -0500
Reply-To: "John H. Rodgers" <inua@QUICKLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "John H. Rodgers" <inua@QUICKLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: The Printed Word
-- [ From: John H. Rodgers * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
Steve, actually I think getting it all on cd might be a better deal.
Individuals could then do their own reasearch at home at their leisure and
print out however thaey wanted. As for who owns what so far as the content
of the archives, the list, the list server, etc, I can't answer that. This
is an area that the legal beagles are going to have to sort out. There is
already a storm coming over ownership of intellectual content of the net,
and copyright ownership on even so simple a thing as a post to a list like
this one. By the measure of some, even this post I am writing is copyrighted
material and for anyone else to copy it is copyright infringment.
The political correct legal correct thing is going to ruin it for us all.
It is principally about money. Someone is affraid someone else is going to
make a buck. How bad it is getting to be? A case appeared in California
where an employee, after working for several years, moved on, going into
business for himself. His new business did not produce a product or compete
with the old company in any way. However, what he learned at the company....
..the experiaence he gained, the knowledge he had acquired, the technical
expertised he developed, the intellectual maturity in business he had
learned, all at the old company......was the foundation for his new business
, as it would most likely be for all of us. And the old business sued,
asking the court for a piece of all he produced in the future because it
would always and forever incorporate into the work his mental development
that occurred while working for the old company. Last I heard the case
didn't look good for the guy. It's crazy! If this ever becomes a standard
in law we are all screwed! Can you imagine working in a garage, then
because of your experience there you go in business making some little
whizgadget that make a mechanics life easier and your former employer wants
a piece of your money for it forever! It's a nightmare to even contemplate.
And its all about avarice.
I belong to some internet business groups and through them I can see this
thing of property rights rising, and I predict that the freedomn we now have
on the net is going to be lost because of the greed.
John Rodgers
'85 GL Driver in Alabam'
-------- REPLY, Original message follows --------
Date: Monday, 06-Apr-98 12:59 AM
From: Steven X. Schwenk \ Internet: (sxs@concentric.net)
To: John H. Rodgers \ Internet: (inua@quicklink.net)
cc: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM \ Internet: (vanagon@vanagon.com)
Subject: Re: The Printed Word
John:
your question raises many more, such as who *owns* the list...or the posts
and knowledge contained within the database. I do not recall signing away
any rights to anything I publish on the list when I subscribed. Can any one
just mine the archive and write a book based on the info in the archives?
Another question is who would do it? Putting together a comprehensive
booklet of posts from the archive would be a significant undertaking...
hardly justifiable without a profit potential...unless you do not need the $
and have nothing else to do....I suppose people could volunteer to handle
specific topics and then they could all be put together and published.
(Ron has started compiling some posts on Vanagon FAQ's on the vanagon.com
site.) Even this would take a lot of work and a cooperative effort. Not
impossible, but who is going to do it...? If one has a hankering and is
willing to do a good job, I suspect Ron might publish compilations or essays
on FAQ's on his site.
steve
John H. Rodgers wrote:
> -- [ From: John H. Rodgers * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
>
> To my esteemed VW Van comrades on the list:
...
My question is this........... has there ever been consideration of getting
> the archived accumulation(redundant?) of experience put together in a
> printed form as a reference book?
>
> ...
> Any comment?
>
> John Rodgers
> '85 GL Driver
-------- REPLY, End of original message --------