|
Grex > Coop11 > #174: A motion to protect Grex from copyright infringement suits. | |
|
| Author |
Message |
other
|
|
A motion to protect Grex from copyright infringement suits.
| 
May 31 07:08 UTC 2000 |
A motion, for the legal protection of Grex, as follows:
"Let there be implemented a Terms of Use agreement between Grex
and its users which gives Cyberspace Communications Incorporated,
its agents and assigns permanent non-exclusive license to any
text posted in Grex's BBS or public Party channels, as a
condition of use of Grex."
This would protect Grex from legal liability in the practice of its current
policy of retaining and publishing any text posted for public consumption.
I would suggest that should this motion pass, the Terms of Use agreement would
become a part of the newuser program, and in order to include already
established users, it would be restated in the MOTD for some period of time.
|
| 78 responses total. |
albaugh
|
|
response 1 of 78:
|
May 31 15:51 UTC 2000 |
Would this discourage participation in the public forums? Would people most
likely just blow by such a terms of use statement? I'd like to hear from the
legal minds on grex what their thoughts are on this.
|
jmsaul
|
|
response 2 of 78:
|
May 31 16:49 UTC 2000 |
Were this to happen, I would leave Grex forever. Some might consider that
a good thing, of course, but I probably wouldn't be alone.
That is, by the way, a very broad license.
|
aaron
|
|
response 3 of 78:
|
May 31 17:37 UTC 2000 |
So, rather than letting people control their own words, Grex demands
an ownership interest? Nothing "big brotherish" about this....
|
other
|
|
response 4 of 78:
|
May 31 18:10 UTC 2000 |
On the contrary.
There is no implication of ownership, and i'd be happy to modify the proposal
to limit the scope of the license so as to restrict the publication rights
to within Grex. Of course, what the users do with the text, and where they
choose to repost, if they choose to repost it, is not Grex's concern.
I think that as an adjunct policy to this one, allowing a brief period (2-7
days) during which postings can be permanently deleted by the posters would
make sense. After that specified period, the postings would become a
permanent part of Grex BBS history.
My point is to try to reach a compromise between two absolute and
non-compatible positions on this issue. Of course there will be some
shakeout, and it is guaranteed that not everyone will be happy, but the
goal is to make a situation which has resulted in a lot of noise being
made into one that works for the largest proportion of the users of Grex.
(Of course, since only the votes of members count toward the result, that
may not happen, but we can hope.)
|
aruba
|
|
response 5 of 78:
|
May 31 18:15 UTC 2000 |
How about staff just acts like reasonable human beings, and we don't try to
come up with rules to cover every situation? It's worked for us so far.
|
goroke
|
|
response 6 of 78:
|
May 31 18:23 UTC 2000 |
I will also exit stage right from the BBS section of Grex.
As with Joe, I am sure there are several who think this would be a good thing.
|
other
|
|
response 7 of 78:
|
May 31 18:38 UTC 2000 |
So what part of codifying in policy the current practice is so offputting that
you'd stop being a part of the BBS community rather than agree?
I am not being facetious. Your honest responses help frame this and give me
the perspective I need to see if this is as good an idea as it now seems to
me to be.
|
jep
|
|
response 8 of 78:
|
May 31 18:51 UTC 2000 |
I'd like to hear more about the objections of those who have them.
I've generally considered anything I posted to be public domain, there
to annoy or to be appreciated by any and all who come by to see it.
That is to say, I expect it has no marketable value. I don't care if
anyone gathers my various postings and includes them on a CD, the
Internet, or into a book. Why should I?
|
other
|
|
response 9 of 78:
|
May 31 19:34 UTC 2000 |
After giving this a lot of thought, and being more pissed off the more I think
about it, I am withdrawing the above motion and proposing the following
instead:
It is moved that:
The hide/expurgate command in Backtalk/BBS shall continue to function
as it now does, but shall be either modified or supplemented so as to more
effectively inform users how to view hidden/expurgated text;
The erase/scribble command in Backtalk/BBS shall continue to function
as it now does, except that the command shall be modified so that it is
only available for any given response for not more than one week after the
response is posted;
The logfile of erased/scribbled posts shall be repermitted so that it
is only readable by staff, including cfadm;
Usage and/or publication of the contents of the erase/scribble logfile
shall be done at the sole judgement of the staff of Grex, in accordance
with the high standards of ethics and community upon which Grex is
founded.
|
jmsaul
|
|
response 10 of 78:
|
May 31 20:22 UTC 2000 |
Re #8: I don't consider my postings to be public domain -- and they aren't,
because I haven't explicitly put them there. I do occasionally write
for publication, and plan to keep doing it, and wouldn't casually
sign something away anyway.
My objection to the specific earlier language is that it was way too broad;
language that enumerated the specific uses expected in BBS and party would
have been better, but much longer -- and I still feel I ought to be able to
remove my own text, so there's no way I'm signing that right away.
|