🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <326agt$nn4@bosnia.pop.psu.edu>,
David Barr <barr@pop.psu.edu> wrote:
>In article <3265q2$gqc@engnews1.Eng.Sun.COM>,
>Mary Morris <marym@Sun.COM> wrote:
>>Can someone enlighten me as to how rights to a newsgroup hierarchy can be
>>purchased?
>
>They can't.  They're wrong.
>
>Usenet is not for sale, since nobody owns it.
>
>--Dave

True, but untrue.  English isn't for sale either, nobody owns it, but
one can, under law, get ownership of particular words (made up or otherwise)
used in specific contexts.

We, for example own the trademarks "clari" and "clarinet" when it comes to
newsgroup hierarchies -- (though a newsgroup of the form rec.music.clarinets
would probably not infringe this mark.)

We also control that hierarchy under contract with our customers, but
trademark law also gives us ownership of it in the sense that we can
prevent non-customers from making use of it against our will.

To say one "purchases" the rights to a hierarchy is not quite right.
(Not yet.)   One gains rights through the act of creation, which one
might sell down the road.  It's not a matter of taking something from
anybody, but of creating something new, and owning/controlling it after
you do.
-- 
Brad Templeton, publisher, ClariNet Communications Corp.
The net's #1 electronic newspaper (circulation 65,000) -- info@clarinet.com