___________________________________________________________________________ Legal: Redistribution rights for postings or mail on the Internet Q. What's the story with the signatures one sees on mail messages or network newsgroup postings that claim copyrights or restrictions on redistribution? I saw this one a while ago: -- Regards, Joe Ragosta -- 100% Chemical and proud of it. Microsoft Network is prohibited from redistributing this work in any form,in whole or in part. Copyright, Joseph Ragosta, 1995. License to distribute this post is available to Microsoft for $1000. Please send notices of violation to Postmaster@microsoft.com A. The guy in the example obviously is not a huge fan of Microsoft Network, eh? But the the question is, will this sort of thing work? There are many unsettled legal issues in the world of the Internet and electronic media, and this is one of them. Practically, it's likely that statements such as the above have no enforceable effect... but we're not lawyers, we're Internet providers, Jim. Even if we *were* lawyers, we probably couldn't tell you whether that situation could change in the coming days, weeks, or years. There just isn't enough in the way of case law, black-letter law, or practical experience in these matters. Is Mr. Ragosta above actually going to sue Microsoft if he sees any of his postings on MSN? Is Microsoft going to mail him a check for $1000? More importantly, are those folks that tell you that publishing rights to any followups to their newsgroup postings or replies to their electronic mail messages belong to them going to get anywhere with those claims? We'll see. In the meantime, here's what we do here at FAQs Central when we encounter postings containing such statements: we mail the poster telling them that we won't reply to mail or news postings containing such statements...and then we ignore what they write until they change their position. That's the way of the anarchy that is the Internet. If it's something that you continue to be concerned about, you should consult your own lawyer; that's the safest approach. (1-Nov-95/legrrfpo/MJT) ___________________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1996 Northwest Nexus Inc. All Rights Reserved.