Grind FTP site

[snelson@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu (Steven Nelson)]

Help!  I need guidance/advise/suggestions.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.  The grind adminstrator
received an e-mail message from (supposedly) Ian Schmidt (irsman@iastate)
threatening legal action against grind.isca.uiowa.edu if we don't
immediately delete AudioZap, ModZap, IRC, and Noisetracker files
from the grind apple2 archives.  I've e-mailed Ian requesting verification
that this was indeed his e-mail message.

In other words, Ian claims ownership of AudioZap, ModZap, IRC demo disks
and Noisetracker GS and does not want them to be distributed or made
available for FTP access.  Obviously this is in retaliation to Charles
Turley and 1WSW who also claim rights to NoisetrackerGS.

How are other sites, particularly cco.caltech, umich, wustl, apple2
sites handling these files?  Have you also been threatened with legal
action?

I don't like to judge what files are legal in the grind apple2/upload
and cba2 archives.  Since the grind drive is owned collectivly by the
apple2 community, should Ian's request to delete his and Charles Turley
files be honored?  If Ian does pursue legal action against grind.isca
I will have to shut down the grind FTP site as we have no funds for
legal counsel to represent us.  The easy out is to delete all those
music application files and let Ian have his way, but it doesn't seem
fair, and sets a precedent that anyone can request files be deleted
from the archives, whether they uploaded or posted the files to begin
with.

Gee, so&so wrote a nda/cda/init that does what mine does, only better,
so I'll have it deleted so people will have to use mine and pay me my
shareware fees.  Then so&so asks that fussits files be deleted, so
we users have no file at all to use!

Anyway, enough paranoia.  What do you csa2 users suggest we do with
the grind files?  It may boil down to kill the files or kill the
FTP archive.

And my deepest apology to Ian if this e-mail message is bogus.  I would
be incredibly embarrassed.

This issue will come up again some day.  We need to discuss it and plan
an appropriate response or course of action.  Gee, being the archiver
used to be fun.  All of a sudden today, it isn't fun at all.

I wish Ian and Charles would settle this between themselves and not
involve grind and the whole apple2 community.  Advice/suggestions
please!

  --Steve  (steven-nelson@uiowa.edu)