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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada

Re: Legal issues with mailing lists.

From: Russell McOrmond <russell_-at-_flora.ca>
To: flora-admin-help_-at-_flora.org
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 18:37:07 -0400 (EDT)

 
On Sun, 18 May 2003 fireweed@gilanet.com wrote:

> Although part of my own Pednet discussion is really a private one
> between Adam and myself, I was pleased that this subject of rights came
> up here. It's that time in history to ask and to sort out .... but who
> knows about resolution.... the medium is still in process, right?

  PEDNET has become an interesting example in that different
administrators were operating under different assumptions.  Maybe if some 
of this 'fine print' were articulated at an earlier date then everyone 
would have been on the same page much earlier.


  There are a lot of things in the air that this conversation brings up.  
Part of it relates to the commercialization of the Internet, and part of
it relating to how much each of us have to learn about laws such as
copyright in order to both protect our own rights, and not infringe on the
rights of others.  Most people do not know how copyright works, and it is
a self-contradictory and far from simple law.  Some people attempt to
over-simplify it with "if I authored it, it is mine" or even the extremist
over-simplification of "theft is theft" (which many courts have confirmed
simply does not apply to copyright).

  Beyond knowing what rights exist today, it is important to think of what
rights are important.  This is why I hope that some of the people
interested in this topic will check out http://www.digital-copyright.ca
and related forums.

  For those in the USA I suggest checking out http://www.eff.org/ as an
organization that is dealing with the delicate balance of these rights,
favoring citizens/creators rights (consumer rights, human rights,
free-software rights, indie artists, indie-media)  over the claimed right
of monopolistic intermediaries (recording industry, motion picture
industry, non-free software industry, etc).


  I am glad to have these conversations happen, but I may suggest we move 
them to a different forum such as comnet-www 
http://www.flora.org/flora/server/comnet-www.html which may be more 
appropriate.


  In our specific immediate case we are talking about documentation to
create the 'fine print' for FLORA.org.  FLORA.org is not being
'commercialized' no matter what changes may be happening on the Internet
as a whole.  As groups wish to move from open public discussion to
commercial discussion, they are invited to move to commercial hosting
services (with the sponsors of FLORA.org hopefully being considered for
hiring for this purpose).

  Each group hosting mailing lists on FLORA.org will need to deal with
these questions and determine whether any of their content is commercial
content, and thus inappropriate for free FLORA.org hosting.

> Pam
---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or
 electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than 
 politicians should be bought.  -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

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