[Paddlewise] Being quoted without permission from list postings (long)

>violation of his copyright.....
>not considered a nice thing to do.  Shame on whoever did this....
>Shame on you.....
>wake-up call....etc. etc.

I am looking at these recent messages about this subject with a sense 
of nostalgia and bemusement (well, almost).

For me, this is deja vu all over again.

This is because, as a few on the NYC-kayaker list may recall, a trip 
report that I put out a few years ago on that list was published in a 
kayaking magazine, (which shall be nameless) without my knowledge or 
my permission. This piece was even published with spelling and 
grammatical errors which were not in my original, and finally, it was 
attributed to Norman S of Columbus, Ohio (not even close)!!!
Well, I can tell you I was pretty upset. I was flattered, but I wrote 
this trip report in the context of some other messages at the time 
and felt that if I had known about its publication, I could have 
changed some things and improved upon the piece, specifically, there 
were some safety issues that I would have enhanced. I emailed the 
magazine for an explanation but got no response for many, many days 
and I really didn't know how to take it. I was relatively new in the 
kayaking community and I did not want to cause a public brouhaha.
So, I made a few calls to the people that I knew. Interestingly, I 
got a myriad of responses in varying degrees of sympathy, from the 
above comments to one kayaking personality (don't ask) who told me I 
was being a "prick".
I also had a personal friend who just happened to be a very 
successful attorney specializing in intellectual property rights, who 
offered me assistance if I wanted it. When I finally mentioned this 
friend in an email to the magazine, they finally responded to me 
(they were "away"), apologized to me, printed an apology to me in the 
following issue, and corrected my address.

So, I learned a few things from this experience and further research 
on it that I can pass on:
-According to my lawyer friend, the entire issue of the copyright of 
email is still somewhat murky and the law is still not yet well 
established as it is in print, meaning that if you have the financial 
wherewithall to pursue a case you may prevail, but you may not.
-It may be helpful if you are concerned about this to put a © 
copyright mark on your work, (making sure that your typeface conforms 
to standard ascii code so it will appear)
-Don't take for granted that your message won't be seen by others 
outside your list
-Be aware that your email can be monitored by various unauthorized 
persons, from hackers to your provider to your government. Until the 
recent confirmation of congressional hearings on Project Echelon, 
this was the stuff of conspiracy theory buffs, but not anymore.
(see The Electronic Privacy Information Centre http://www.epic.org & 
http://www.house.gov/barr/p_081699.html or do your own search on 
"echelon" for futher info)
See you on the water,
Norman Savitt
contents©1999
(I rarely do this, but what the hell...;-)

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