> On Tue, 16 May 1995, Peter J. Kappesser wrote:
>
> > Here's a thought: Someone who finds their FAQ, or substantial portions
> > thereof, published somewhere without compensation, could send an itemized
> > bill to the "Accounts Payable" department of the publisher. Include the
> > title of the book, author's/editor's name, and something like "Consideration
> > for Material Excerpted Without Permission from Blurfl FAQ -- 1000 words,
> > pages 37-39: $500.00." If they challenge it, send a copy of your FAQ. If
> > they ignore it, dun them three times and turn it over to a collection
> > agency. In any case the editor's gonna have some 'splainin' to do.
>
> An appealing idea, but the second part at least wouldn't work. You don't
> have a legally binding receivable that can be sold to a collection agency.
>
> One of the difficulties here is that FAQs are a free good under the
> current setup. They are available to anyone who has access, at only the
> cost of time and connection. The CD-ROM and book folks will claim that
> they "add value" by putting a bunch of stuff under one cover, and it is
> *that* value they are charging for. A good intellectual property attorney
> might be able to convince a jury otherwise, but it sounds like a tough
> case.
>
I've been reading this thread for a few days (I just joined the mailing
list since I'm working on a list of operating systems for the PC) and I
wonder how this issue would be adressed if the complaint came from
France. Under French law, anything you write is your property (even if
you sold rights to it to someone else).
This means for instance that a musician in a philarmonic orchestra could
object to a TV diffusion of a concert (of course that musician probably
wouldn't get much work after that).
So if someone in France actually copied a text I wrote and included it in
a book, I could have all of the books destroyed if I object to the
printing of my stuff. I have no idea how this would be handled if it was
an american publisher though...
Another problem arising from the international scope of the Net...
Fred.
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