Deliberate open Publication by author means non-confidential?/etc..

[Russell McOrmond]

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004, Robin 'Roblimo' Miller wrote:

> 
> > > NOTICE
> > > This email and any attachments are confidential.
> >
> >No, it's not.  You gave up any right to confidentiality when you sent
> >it to a public mailing list.  You can't both publish something and
> >successfully claim that it is confidential at the same time.
> >
> 
> Not only that, this email list is archived on several Web sites, and 
> those Web sites are archived at Google, archive.org, and elsewhere.

  While this is off-topic, it is important to note that many lawyers don't
understand this.  In Canada we have a problem currently where a
parliamentary committee is recommending radical changes to the copyright
act that suggest that any publication of the public (no membership
required) internet that does not have a strong legalistic license
agreement declaring it is royalty-free (such as Creative Commons) then it
is royalty-bearing.  If a Canadian reads the archives of this list it is
claimed that this is an infringement.

  This wouldn't be a problem except that a collective society (Access
Copyright) is claiming the right to collect royalties for any viewing of
publicly available Internet materials when this is done within an 
educational institution.

See: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/view/550 (Canadians in this list
that didn't know about this should get actively involved in copyright
policy)

  We need to somehow get the legal community and members of parliaments up
to speed on how the Internet works, otherwise the laws will be changed to
make up-look-down, turn black-into-white and other such nonsense.


> Even worse, at least a few journalists lurk here and have been known to 
> write stories based on what they read on this and other public email lists.
> 
> - Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
>   Editor in Chief, OSTG
> 
> 
> Disclaimer: This email is intended for literate persons only. If you 
> cannot read, you are not allowed to read it.
>   
> 

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Have you, your family, your friends (, your enemies) signed the
 Petition to the Canadian Parliament for Users' Rights in Copyright?
 http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/