Copyright

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

I'd love to argue, like Stuart and Brian and others against Steven 
Weisenberger's warnings re: copyright infringement.  But I suspect that 
despite all the documents he sites/they site, etc,. this area is still so 
murky as to avoid definition.  The very freedoms we enjoy are usurped by 
those racing to regulate us.  The fluidity of cyberspace offers more 
loopholes than any paper literacy, any leather-bound text.  And so, 
Steven's suggestion that we be careful, that we act wisely when posting 
copyrighted materials to any list, or even that we avoid it altogether, 
is sound.

One of my colleagues, here at USF, has been commissioned to generate an 
MLA code for documenting info taken from any internet resource.  They are 
serious.  So if the lawmakers don't get at you, at the very least, you'll 
be snubbed by one or two journal editors (paper or electronic) if you 
aren't careful.

I've always laughed about the notion of cyberspace as ABSOLUTELY FREE AND 
UNRESTRICTED.  It was bound to happen, all this.  Goddess knows, we 
can't experience one sqare inch of unmediated Earth, why should the ether 
be beyond our colonizing impusle?

Bonnie