--On Wednesday, April 25, 2001 3:01 PM +0100 Peter Galbavy
<peter.galbavy@knowledge.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 08:32:17AM -0400, Tom Neff wrote:
>> Listowners and digesters commonly assert "compilation copyright" over
>> their particular sequences and assemblies of others' writing, even
>> where the latter is in the public domain. But they are in no position
>> to assert, waive or otherwise mess with the INDIVIDUAL copyright each
>> member holds in her or his postings. A listowner may say "you own your
>> words," but this is purely informational, like saying "the sun came up
>> today," and not a revocable statement of policy. The listowner might
>> as well say "Danny DeVito owns your words" and it would have the same
>> force and effect, i.e. none.
>
> I would counter this by saying that if the membership conditions of a
> list included a clause in which the subscriber agreed to assign
> copyright in all postings to the list, then this *is* valid, and would
> mean that the poster gives copyright over to whoever is specified.
>
> Assignment of copyright may invlove a written agreement in some
> jurisdictions.
Yes, a contract or agreement can be drawn up saying anything at all,
including that I agree to assign to Pee Wee Herman the copyright on every
third message I post, or that you have the right to make a red-and-white
billboard out of any essay of mine containing the word "maple." However,
in the absence of such an agreement or contract, if all I did was join a
mailing list of the usual kind and in the usual way, anything about
ownership that the listowner decides to suggest or assert after the fact is
just hot air.
The default situation is that the list owner has a compilation copyright if
she or he wishes to assert it, assuming it hasn't been waived or signed
away by other means; and that each individual member automatically has
copyright over individual postings, unless it has been waived or assigned
for some reason. (For example, I could sign a contract assigning you
copyright over everything I write on the Net for the next ten years, in
exchange for $100million :), and if three months later I joined
BEEKEEPERS-L, what I wrote there would still belong to you -- probably
unbeknownst to the BEEKEEPERS-L listowner, who nevertheless would retain
compilation copyright over her/his list as a whole.)
If any listowner has thoughts about imposing anything DIFFERENT than this
default situation, they had better spell it out in the membership agreement
first.
References:
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