Jules accidentally misleads

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

This is concerning Jules' reply to jester's thoughtful post.

For the record, Jules and I have been correspnding cordially while the list has engaged 
itself with LINELAND issues.  I have tried to stay out of the public discussion.  However 
Jules accidentally  misleads in one statement he makes.  When Jules writes:

>
> All of John Mascaro's
>observations had prior review. Andrew gave me his enthusiastic carte blanche
>to use anything he wrote.

I think he unintentionally creates the impression that Andrew's carte blanche had my 
name on it too.  It didn't.  Exactly at the point I was given *prior review* of a LINELAND
 galley I asked not be in it.  Exactly at the point I asked not to be in it I was told my 
permission was no longer needed.  Exactly at the point I was told that, I realized my 
options were to consult a lawyer or to sit back and let the gods toss this around.  I chose 
the latter course, and have been watching the bouncing ball.  I have never given explicit
 permission for my posts to be included in LINELAND.  I know Jules wants to be
 scrupulous about the facts, so there they are, on my case at least.

My opinion is that the list archive, maybe the whole net,  should be viewed as being more
 analogous to a lending library than a cocktail party.  Like a library, everything's there and
 security is minimal.  Foax can browse or borrow materials, or make photocopies for 
personal use.  They can't snip and nip pieces of books and paste them together, at 
whatever percentage beyond the barest fair use citations, for republication.  At leasdt, not 
without permission and/or compensation.  (And, BTW,  it's not up to the snipper to 
determine what may or may not ever have commercial value, and in fact, IMO that aspect
 is a red herring.)

But the stress here is on *opinion.*    I mentioned this analogy informally to some foax
 w/ legal backgrounds and they all allowed as to how it was interesting.  But not until a 
legally vested Authority establishes the *reality* of the matter will we be able to say 
*what* this medium is.  That day is approaching, and LINELAND is a sympton of the 
growing eed for such definition, but it ain't here yet.

As I see it, Jules has, if nothing else, the chutzpah to make the move he's made.  He can be 
criticized but not assassinated or tortured for it.  People should stop trashing him (unless 
they don't want to--don't want to censor anyone).