Re: defacto copyright, Berne Convention

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[A previous poster had stated:]
} > the Berne Convention establishes that a document is
} >copywritten automatically as it is written by an author. And the
} >copyrights established prevent one from using more than fair use
} >portion of the document in any other document.
} >
} >I wonder then exactly how "fair use" is defined.
}
} And so it begins all over again. Didn't we just have this discussion
} a little while back?

You folks may have, but those of us who are fairly new to this
particular mailing list just found that out with your comments
above. Such happens whenever someone new comes onto a mailing
list. I have exactly the same problems with lists I maintain.

Is there a FAQ for the "FAQ Maintainers mailing list" outlining
past discussions that I should be reading in addition to the
information sent out with the mailing list subscripton? Private
email replies to this query would be just fine thanks.

} >Could someone please post the appropriate specifics from the
} >Berne Convention document? (if permitted by copyright :))
}
} You could also read the Copyright FAQ.

Now that I know my information was overly dated, and that there is such
a FAQ, I've hunted it down, ftp'd it, and find some interesting details.

Indeed, the observance of copyright laws is not universal, nor is it
necessarily identically applied in varying signatory countries. Also,
not all countries are signatories to the Berne Convention and/or the UCC.
To suggest that the entire planet is totally US-centric and adheres to
US court intrepretations is incorrect. While the Berne Convention may
(or may not) at some future time lead courts in some countries to rule
that Usenet postings may have been utilized beyond that allowed by "fair
use", as the FAQ points out, "These theories are largely speculative,
because there has been little litigation to test them in the courts."

One normally takes sensible precautions to stay out of court, as have
these folks. Untested laws and conventions aside, I still respect the
prospective compilation authors for having the decency of asking for
permission before using anyone's FAQs in a compilation.

Thanks, everyone, for the FAQ pointers. I'll stop wasting bandwidth now.

--
  Ed. A. Hew,    <edhew@xenitec.on.ca>    ....!uunet.ca!xenitec!eah
  XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener ON, Canada +1 519 570 9848

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