Messages
Newsgroups pose an interesting problem from a copyright perspective in that
they contain elements of email (sending a message to other people) and Web
pages (publishing a message for all netizens to see). This section deals with
the issue of copying newsgroup messages as opposed to the copying of news
articles into newsgroup messages . Many people who post to newsgroups never
give a second thought as to the ultimate fate of their message. On the other
hand, some people are very sensitive about who sees, and what happens to, their
messages. And then there are those who would just as soon have the planet
spammed with their messages. With all of these different expectations attached
to people's messages, it behooves netizens to understand the rules of the road
and state their expectations accordingly.
Copyright Protection of Posts
Let's say that you are reading the newsgroup physics.brilliant.snob when in a
flash of insight you discover the secret to free energy. Eager to memorialize
this discovery, you compose the following message:
All that has been said in this newsgroup is ultimately as nourishing to the
scientific appetite as a water molecule with a missing proton. The formula x =
pi / $C0FFEE sublimely resolves all blemishes from the landscape of particle
physics.
There it is - your baby. You sweated over your keyboard for six hours to craft
two pithy sentences that simultaneously puts down your equally arrogant
colleagues and bestows upon the world the secret to free energy. You can now
send your baby out to the physics.brilliant.snob newsgroup secure in the
knowledge that it is protected by copyright. As such, it is legally protected
from indiscriminate copying to newspapers, magazines, and even the
sanrio.hello.kitty newsgroup.
But if your message is posted there for all 30 million netsurfers to see,
what's the problem with reposting it to another newsgroup? Well, posting such a
virulent insult in sanrio.hello.kitty may offend the subscribers of that
newsgroup. They may think that you posted it there and that you were referring
to them, thereby causing the subscribers of that newsgroup to hold you in
disdain. Also, you may feel that the subscribers of sanrio.hello.kitty are
simply unworthy of the secret to free energy, and you would therefore just as
soon not have them reading it. Whatever your reason, its irrelevant - you
control the copyright, and its your prerogative.
Retransmitting Information
Suppose someone reads your post in the physics newsgroup and then posts the
following message in the sanrio.hello.kitty newsgroup:
I heard in the physics newsgroup that most of the people who post are stupid and
that the secret to free energy is: x = pi / $C0FFEE.
This message contains all of the information contained in the original post. Is
this copyright infringement? It is not, because copyright only protects the
expression of an idea, and not the idea itself. Consequently, a retransmission
of the ideas, facts, or even conjectures (which are not themselves
copyrightable elements) in the retransmitter's own words does not constitute a
copyright infringement, and is itself as protected by copyright as the original
posting. From a legal standpoint, this is the preferred method for information
to propagate across the net.
Implied License
There is an evolving theory of implied license that keeps popping up in Internet
related legal issues. In the context of postings to newsgroups, one source
proposes an implied license theory whereby in committing the act of posting to
a newsgroup, you are in fact granting an implied license to other people to
repost your message in the following circumstances:
-
copying a message from one message area to another message area on the same
system.
-
copying a message from one forum to other similar forums on the same
conferencing system.
If you are in fact toying with the idea of reposting a message from a newsgroup,
keep in mind that the following characteristics will be taken in account when
determining whether or not you have acted within the purview of the implied
license:
-
whether the copied message will reach a different audience
-
whether the copied message is being introduced to different distribution
systems
Actual License
There are those who would like their messages spread throughout the land, and
the copyright minded of them will so state in their message with some statement
to the effect:
This message may be freely copied, distributed or otherwise retransmitted.
By inserting this statement into the message or in the signature line, has this
person put the message into the public
domain? Not quite, a grant to the public domain must be explicit.
However, the author has granted a pretty liberal license that has a similar
effect. Sometimes people will place conditions on any redistribution. This is
simply a more restrictive license and can contain any provisions that the
author deems appropriate. Common conditions of such licenses seen on the net
include provisions that the person redistributing the message cannot do so for
personal gain; that it must be circulated in its entirety, that it cannot be
used out of context, or that it cannot be edited or reformatted.