Re: Politeness

[Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

|} Ronald Lee Stone said:
|} > I am also sending a message to those contributors who's posts
|} > I would like to include in the paper.

To which Karen Kay replied:

|} I'm appalled at someone coming in and taking comments out of
|} context to use in some study. Mailing lists are NOT usenet
|} (even though they are often gatewayed). I see mailing lists
|} as developing a definite culture and community of their own
|} in a way that newsgroups do not. And my sense of community
|} has just been violated.

Interesting. I am doing a study on electronic communities and...
No, calm down, I'm just jokin' with ya. Now for the dissenting
opinion. I was asked if I would mind having my quotes used in this
manner and I told Mr. Stone that he could use any and all of it,
and I didnn't even ask if he was casting me as the villian (he
says, as he twists his moustache and laughs a wicked, nay, even
vile laugh).

I am not a copyright expert, but I believe that I read that it is
permissable to include little bits of copyrighted material in your
own work for the purposes of commentary, so it may have been quite
legal and ethical for him to quote us with or without our permission.
That, and the prevailing net attitude that free access equals free
use, makes the fact that He announced his intentions both on the
group and privately to those involved an applaudable act.

So Karen hates what he's doing, and I applaud it. Aint it fun bein'
a human?

Cheers,
    _______________________
   /  ___  __/__\  \ /  / _\    Steve Fouts
  /___ \|  |  ___\  |  /  __\   sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
 /   /  \  |      \   /      \
/_______/__|_______\_/________\ "These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper,
but _minds_ alive on the shelves."      -- Gilbert Highet