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Re: Draft Terms of Participation for the A&A List



I appreciate the work of those who wrote the terms of participation and
the opportunity to comment on them.

I would just like to agree with the sentiment expressed by others
regarding the copyright portion.

If one combines the following two statements:

(1) "Publication of the discussion posted on the List requires the
permission of the the individuals who own copyright to the postings."

(2) "Participants forwarding messages written by others should recognize
that they are effectively publishing those messages."

The implication would be that one must ask for permission every time
text is quoted.  I doubt that this is what the authors intended,
particularly given the following text that appears a bit lower in the
document:

"Messages-especially responses- should be long enough to be
understandable, including enough of the original message
(by quoting or paraphrasing) to provide context."

I think much more important is the statement:

"Participants assume responsibility for all materials they post to
archives and archivists."

I completely agree with the need to mention copyright concerns.  But I
think (1) above is unfounded.  The entire point of fair use is that it
doesn't require any permission for the author.  The absence of such a
right would have a dramatic chilling effect on professional dialogue.

=======================================================
Cal Lee
Electronic Records Project Archivist
Kansas State Historical Society
Phone: 785-272-8681, ext. 280         Fax: 785-272-8682
http://da.state.ks.us/itab/erc/
http://www.kshs.org/archives/recmgt.htm
                  "Obsolete power corrupts obsoletely."
                                           - Ted Nelson

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