Re: New FAQ sites? (was Re: Nathan does it again!)

[pfg@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU (Paul Francis Gilbert)]

sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms) writes:

>In article <3433CB69.7E45@swbell.net>, Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:

>>      This is surprising information. There is normally no problem with 
>> someone choosing to exclude access to his/her private site. Excluding 
>> access to the csa2 FAQ's is another matter.
>>
>>      Implicit in being accepted as FAQ keeper is the requirement that one 
>> guarantee that the FAQ's be readily available for downloading by any 
>> Apple II user from an open, free site. If the restriction on access is 
>> not soon removed, it will be necessary to upload the csa2 FAQ's, perhaps 
>> in reorganized form, to one or more new sites.

>Are you claiming that the FAQ that Nathan wrote is in fact public property
>rather than the property of Nathan Mates? What an interesting concept.
>If that is true then I suppose that it would be perfectly fine for me
>to set up a site to distribute the full text of all my favorite novels
>freely to the public.

>Of course, I will "reorganize" them by shuffling the chapters around. That
>should take care of any legal problems right?

>Or did you actually mean that you are going to write your own FAQ from
>scratch, without copying Nathan's FAQ?

What is being said is that all of the information isn't Nathans... he didn't
make the Apple after all, so he doesn't have copyright over any Apple related
information in it, except for the formatting [which can be copyrighted], and
any extraneous pieces included in it [such as his personal experiences with
the Apple, or things he's discovered about the Apple].

Considering this is a newsgroup, the charter of the entire newsgroup 
hierachy is that the FAQ for a newsgroup must be availble to everyone. I'd
have much less problems if it was just an Apple information page he'd made...
then he'd have the right to exclude whoever he wants. But since he is the
FAQ maintainer, he has the obligation to make the FAQ available to everyone
regardless of his personal opinions, or forfeit his right be FAQ maintainer.


>-- 
>W. Sheldon Simms III   |   2000 is *still* the 20th century
>sheldon@atlcom.net     |
--
Paul Gilbert           | pfg@yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au
Bach App Sci, Bach Eng | The opinions expressed are my own, all my own, and
Year 4, RMIT Melbourne | as such will contain no references to small furry
Australia	       | creatures from Alpha Centauri.