On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 08:08:14PM -0500, David Phillips wrote:

> You're right.  You can.  Just like I can make and distribute copies of
> Windows.  But that doesn't make it legal.

How does this pertain to the current discussion? Did Microsoft publish
a copy of Windows in a public forum?

> Think about it this way: The creator of a work holds the copyright.  What
> rights you have to use that work are determined by copyright law.  You need
> to think about why you have a right to do something, not why it could be
> illegal.

And once you've released something into the public domain you can't simply
change your mind and retract it.

> 
> The real question is this: What gives me the right to publish someone else's
> copyrighted work?

If you stand up in the middle of a group of people to make a statement, and 
that meeting is being videotaped, do you think you have any right to demand
that anyone with a copy of that video tape erase the parts in which you
participated? 

It's essentially the same thing. The person making the request in this case
has joined a public forum, that they were well aware is archived, and
indexed by search engines. This person made a statement that [for some reason]
they wish to retract. 

Now, do you think that _any_ court would order a [large] group of people to 
erase portions of a recording made in public on the whim of a person who made a
statement they wish to essentially erase? 

If it were possible, former president Clinton would be demanding that everyone
erase their copy of the 'No, I did not have sex with that woman' statements.
Trent Lott would have immediately demanded that nobody repeat his copyrighted
works from Strom Thurmond's birthday event.


Point: You have to think before you speak, and be prepared to have it follow
you around for the rest of your life, maybe longer.


> That question can likely only be answered adequately by your attorney and
> ultimately by the courts.

Common sense can go a long way though.

> --
> David Phillips <david at acz.org>
> http://david.acz.org/

-- 
Matthew S. Hallacy                            FUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified
http://www.poptix.net                           GPG public key 0x01938203

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