RE: favor

From: Ted Mittelstaedt (tedm_at_toybox.placo.com)
Date: 02/09/05

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    To: "Loren M. Lang" <lorenl@alzatex.com>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 23:06:13 -0800

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
    > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Loren M. Lang
    > Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 9:33 PM
    > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
    > Subject: Re: favor
    >
    >
    > What if I wanted to put up a page of emails that I wrote and sent to,
    > say, the freebsd questions mailing list. Since they are
    > replies to other
    > peoples emails, it includes bits of what they wrote, but it may be
    > relavent to understanding my reply. Now, of course I'll remove all
    > headers and mangle all email addresses, but, since it includes their
    > ideas, can I still post it on a website for others to read who may be
    > having the same problems?
    >

    This is called making a collection, and strictly you are supposed to
    get permission from each person to include what they say.

    However, in this case, it is most likely each person is just repeating
    to your answer some response they heard from someone else, or got from
    a manual, or some such. For example you post asking for an example of
    a /etc/printcap and someone replies - while technically that's his
    copyrighted material, if he simply copies an example already in the
    /etc/printcap file with a few explanations, it's not his copyrighted
    material since it belongs to the BSD copyight - except that the
    BSD copyright allows you to do this....

    It is far better to simply rewrite the responses that you get, besides
    making them more cohesive and easier to understand, when you do this
    you avoid the copyright issue. Ideas cannot be copyrighted -
    for example I can see a SpongeBob Squarepants cartoon where the
    Sponge gets flushed and jams the crapper - I can then write a story about
    a talking toilet brush that gets flushed and jams the crapper - no
    infringement there. That is after all how 99% of television writing is
    done today. Ideas can be patented though and images can be trademarked.
    So I best make sure the toilet brush in my story doesen't look yellow,
    spongey and square.

    Ted

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