🚀 go-pugleaf

mfolivo@sactoh0.UUCP (Mark F. Newton) writes in article <2327@sactoh0.UUCP>:

| Hmm. Alot of traffic on comp.sys.atari.st screaming, pleading,
| apologizing, etc, about the posting of Usenet articles on GEnie.
| 
| From what I have read, a majority of the posters disliked the idea
| very strongly, that Usenet messages appear on a pay service, that
| is, a one-way link- Usenet on GEnie, but nothing from GEnie to
| Usenet.

My own understanding of the whole matter (this from reading about it in 
the news. groups) was that David Small, of Gadgets by Small (which produces
among other things a Mac emulator for the Atari ST) had implemented a
Usenet-Genie link, one-way.  That it was one-way irritated some users, but
that Genie claimed to have a copyright on the articles once they had 
received them was the final straw.

To put this in concrete terms, if my site received this message I'm 
replying to after Genie got their hands on it, I would be (by Genie's claim)
breaking copyright law.  Posting a public reply with attribution (such as
this message is doing) from another message could also get me in trouble
with the Genie copyright claim.

Obviously, this was an absurd claim, but it was the official position that
Genie was taking.  Therefore, a few people mobilized to have Dave Small shut
down that link, so that they could discuss out all the ramifications of the
link first.

| I understand that someone in rec.arts.anime compiles messages
| (edited? unknown.) and uploads it to CompuServe's Japanimation
| forum's downloads section, as "Usenet Digests". Now, as I
| understand it, noone there has said anything about it. So the users
| in r.a.a. apparently does't mind that their messages have to be
| "paid for" and downloaded from CIS.

I've seen this as well, but I'm not sure what to make of it.  Compuserve is
indeed a pay service, and technically they're charging people money on files
part of which are culled from rec.arts.anime.  However, they're not attempting
to claim it as their own under copyright, as Genie was doing.  People that
download it are free to redistribute it, as far as I know.

| When I was on CIS, I used to see the files, but due to the size of
| them (usually around 32k) I never dloaded them. (read: $$$) But
| when I found out there was a local public access to Usenet, I
| switched and use this system exclusively.
| 
| Now the users in r.a.a. apparently feel that the availability of
| anime information should be passed around, and it is my impression
| that c.s.a.st users do not want Usenet appearing on any pay
| service.

Yes, but don't forget, many people have to pay for their Usenet accounts, 
so that invalidates that opinion right away.  I'm certain that it was the
copyright issue that had people campaigning against the Usenet-Genie link.
As I recall, they were talking about forcibly placing "copylefts" :-) in
the UUCP batching software, which would render many articles useless for
Genie's purposes...
--
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, | Ragnarok ----- mikem@comspec.UUCP
Moves on:  not all thy Piety nor thy Wit    |----------------------------------
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,   | Path:  uunet!(utgpu!moore,attcan!
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.    | telly)!becker!comspec!mikem