[Air-l] copyright considerations

[radhika gajjala]

On email lists this blurring is more apparent than on websites without
synchronous components - it is easier to treat websites as "published"
material than it is the interactions on email lists. Does one treat email
list participants as "human subjects" or "texts"...or something
else/more/less altogether?

As I type to a general public email discussionlist, I realize the
imaginedness of most of my audience, so perhaps this is an act of
"publishing" -but as I respond directly or indirectly to Nancy Baym or
Sandra Braman or Barry Wellman (who have probably never really seen me f2f
or might not even consider this email as addressing them directly,
interpersonally - just as I have lost track of who actually started this
thread) is this an act of "talking" .... and what if to complicate things
even more I were not posting from within the US but from somewhere where US
academic or corporate or other laws and "ethics" mean nothing contextually ....


just adding more to the pot of confusion (I worked out some answers when
doing my research, so I'm not as confused as i sound, but the working out is
always tactical/strategic and contextual - emphasis on contextual because it
is so easy to lose sight of the multiply mediated contexts online...)

r


At 08:21 PM 9/2/01 -0500, you wrote:
>This raises for me an interesting aspect to the ethics struggle, 
>which is that if something is copyrighted, we OWE it to the author to 
>give full credit, which comes up against research ethic traditions of 
>hiding identities of subjects when studying online discussion. I 
>struggled with this with some of the more creative posts I quoted in 
>my work and erred on the side of anonymity over credit. Nancy.
>
>
>>  works that can be copyrighted in the us must meet the following criteria:
>>
>>- be the EXPRESSION of an idea (ideas can't be copyrighted)
>>
>>- be ORIGINAL (be accomplished by the author)
>>
>>- be CREATIVE (involve at least a modicum of intellectual activity by the
>>author -- an emotive grunt, even by an author, is not copyrightable)
>>
>>- be FIXED (be in some form that permits it to be reproduced)
>>
>>works do NOT have to be good, unique, or novel (new) -- or have any economic
>>value.
>>
>>since 1978, copyrightable works are covered by copyright from the moment of
>>production, even if there is no copyright notice and even if the work is not
>>registered with the copyright office.  (however, one cannot pursue copyright
>>infringement without registration and notice.)
>>
>>e-mail, websites, etc., whether fortunately or unfortunately, generally meet
>>these criteria.
>>
>>sandra braman
>_______________________________________________________________
>Nancy Baym, Communication Studies
>University of Kansas
>NEW! email: nbaym at ku.edu
>NEW! snail mail: 102 Bailey, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
>NEW! url: http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym
>
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>
___________
Radhika Gajjala
Assistant Professor,
Dept of Interpersonal Communication/School of Communication Studies
tel - 372-0528
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
http://www.cyberdiva.org
http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/4425/
fax: 419-372-9841

__________