[9479] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Inmac, junk mail, and the death of the net.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Thu Jan 6 18:00:01 1994
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 17:56:21 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: sommerfeld@apollo.hp.com
Cc: crocker@tis.com, spike@coke.std.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Bill Sommerfeld's message of Thu, 6 Jan 1994 17:45:04 -0500 <9401062245.AA19096@psi.com>
>From: Bill Sommerfeld <sommerfeld@apollo.hp.com>
>It occurs to me that an appropriate semi-technical solution to this
>problem is to have finger or fingerd put a copyright notice in its
>output barring redistribution or resale of the information.
I thought it was decided by the Supreme Court recently that one cannot
copyright a mere list of names etc. against re-use? This was in
regards to re-use of telephone directories and whether the telcos
could claim a copyright on the list. They lost, there has to be
something more to the "work" than just compiling a list.
But I suppose one can tag any claim and let the other fellow worry
about whether or not it's enforceable in this specific case.
The important thing is that they generally need more than just names
to get a saleable item, except where perhaps they can guess the
corporate drop-off, but I don't think most people are all that worried
about this when it just goes to their corporate mail (I wonder how
many companies sell their own employees' names? I know Boston
University sold/sells their staff, faculty and student lists), tho
companies might well be concerned, typically they pay in-house to sort
all that mail to employees.
-Barry Shein
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