The F I D O N E W S Volume 22, Number 10 07 Mar 2005 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |The newsletter of the | | | | | FidoNet community. | | Netmail attach to (POTS): | | | | | Editor @ 2:2/2 (+46-31-944907) | | | ____________| | | | | / __ | Netmail attach to (BinkP): | | | / / \ | Editor @ 2:203/0 | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | | | \_______\(_| /_) | Email attach to: | | _ @/_ \ _ | bfelten @ telia dot com | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ ))| | | |__U__| / \// | Editor: Bj”rn Felten | | ______ _//|| _\ / | | | / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/ | Newspapers should have no friends. | | (________) (jm) | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Copyright 2005 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1 2. GENERAL ARTICLES ......................................... 2 What is a Copyright? ..................................... 2 3. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 7 Fidonet Related Websites ................................. 7 4. ROBERT COUTURE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................ 10 FIDONet Software References .............................. 10 5. SPECIAL INTEREST ......................................... 15 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 15 6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 17 How to Submit an Article ................................. 17 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 19 FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 1 7 Mar 2005 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 2 7 Mar 2005 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= What is a Copyright? Shannon Talley (1:275/311) Originally published by Fidonews Editor, Henk Wolsink, in Volume 15, Number 39, 28 September 1998 A copyright gives the owner of a creative work the right to keep others from using the work without the owner's permission. The key to understanding copyright law is to understand the difference between an idea and the expression of the idea. Copyright applies only to a particular expression, not to the ideas or facts underlying the expression. For instance, copyright may protect a particular song, novel or computer game about a romance in space, but it cannot protect the underlying idea of having a love affair among the stars. More specifically, a creative work (often referred to as a "work of authorship") must meet all of these three criteria to be protected by copyright: It must be original. In other words, the author must have created rather than copied it. It must be fixed in a tangible (concrete) medium of expression. For example, it might be expressed on paper, audio or video tape, computer disk, clay or canvas. It must have at least some creativity--that is, it must be produced by an exercise of human intellect. There is no hard and fast rule as to how much creativity is enough. To give an example, it must go beyond the creativity found in the telephone white pages, which involve a non-discretionary alphabetic listing of telephone numbers rather than a creative selection of listings. How long does a copyright last? For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 50 years. However, if the work is a work for hire (that is, the work is done in the course of employment or has been specifically commissioned) or is published anonymously or under a pseudonym, the copyright lasts between 75 and 100 years, depending on the date the work is published. If the work was published before 1978 and the copyright has been properly renewed, the copyright expires 75 years after date of publication. If the work was created, but not published, before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 50 years. However, even if the author died over 50 years ago, the copyright in an unpublished work lasts until December 31, 2002. And if such a work is published before 2003, the copyright lasts until December 31, 2027. International Copyright Protection. Copyright protection rules are fairly similar worldwide, due to several international copyright treaties, the most important of FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 3 7 Mar 2005 which is the Berne Convention. Under this treaty, all member countries --and there are more than 100, including virtually all industrialized nations--must afford copyright protection to authors who are nationals of any member country. This protection must last for at least the life of the author plus 50 years, and must be automatic without the need for the author to take any legal steps to preserve the copyright. In addition to the Berne Convention, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) treaty contains a number of provisions that affect copyright protection in signatory countries. Together, the Berne Copyright Convention and the GATT treaty allow U.S. authors to enforce their copyrights in most industrialized nations, and allow the nationals of those nations to enforce their copyrights in the U.S. With one important exception, you should assume that every work is protected by copyright unless you can establish that it is not. As mentioned above, you can't rely on the presence or absence of a copyright notice ((c)) to make this determination, because a notice is not required for works published after March 1, 1989. And even for works published before 1989, the absence of a copyright notice may not affect the validity of the copyright. The exception is for materials put to work under the "fair use rule." This rule recognizes that society can often benefit from the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials when the purpose of the use serves the ends of scholarship, education or an informed public. For example, scholars must be free to quote from their research resources in order to comment on the material. Copyright (c)1995, The Trustees of California State University. When Copying Is OK: The 'Fair Use' Rule by Stephen Fishman Copyright (c) Nolo Press Sooner or later, almost all writers quote or closely paraphrase what others have written. For example: Andy, putting together a newsletter on his home computer, reprints an editorial he likes from a daily newspaper. Phil, a biographer and historian, quotes from several unpublished letters and diaries written by his subject. Regina, a freelance writer, closely paraphrases two paragraphs from the Encyclopedia Britannica in an article she's writing. Sylvia, a poet, quotes a line from a poem by T.S. Eliot in one of her own poems. Donnie, a comedian, writes a parody of the famous song "Blue Moon" he performs in his comedy act. Assuming the material quoted in these examples is protected by copyright, do Phil, Regina, Sylvia, Andy and Donnie need permission from the author or other copyright owner to use it? It may surprise you to learn that the answer is "not necessarily." Under the "fair use" rule of copyright law, an author may make limited use of another author's work without asking permission. The fair use privilege is perhaps the most significant limitation on a FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 4 7 Mar 2005 copyright owner's exclusive rights. If you write or publish, you need a basic understanding of what is and is not fair use. Uses That Are Generally Fair Uses. Subject to some general limitations discussed later in this article, the following types of uses are usually deemed fair uses: Criticism and comment--for example, quoting or excerpting a work in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment. News reporting--for example, summarizing an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report. Research and scholarship--for example, quoting a short passage in a scholarly, scientific or technical work for illustration or clarifi- cation of the author's observations. Nonprofit educational uses--for example, photocopying of limited portions of written works by teachers for classroom use. Parody--that is, a work that ridicules another, usually well-known, work by imitating it in a comic way. In most other situations, copying is not legally a fair use. Without an author's permission, such a use violates the author's copyright. Violations often occur when the use is motivated primarily by a desire for commercial gain. The fact that a work is published primarily for private commercial gain weighs against a finding of fair use. For example, using the Bob Dylan line "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" in a poem published in a small literary journal would probably be a fair use; using the same line in an advertisement for raincoats probably would not be. A commercial motive doesn't always disqualify someone from claiming a fair use. A use that benefits the public can qualify as a fair use, even if it makes money for the user. For example, a vacuum cleaner manufacturer was permitted in its advertising to quote from a Consumer Reports article comparing vacuum cleaners. Why? The ad significantly increased the number of people exposed to the Consumers Union's evaluations and thereby disseminated helpful consumer information. The same rationale probably applies to the widespread practice of quoting from favorable reviews in advertisements for books, films and plays. Copying From Unpublished Materials. When it comes to fair use, unpublished works are inherently different from published works. Publishing an author's unpublished work before he or she has authorized it infringes upon the author's right to decide when and whether the work will be made public. Some courts have held that fair use never applies to unpublished material. As you might expect, publishers, authors' groups, biographers and historians were highly critical of this view. They got Congress to amend the fair use provision in the Copyright Act to make clear that the fact that a work is unpublished weighs against fair use, but is not determinative in and of itself. If the other fair use factors FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 5 7 Mar 2005 favor fair use, it can be permissible to use part of an unpublished work without permission. This is particularly likely where the use benefits the public by furthering the fundamental purpose of the copyright laws--the advancement of human knowledge. For example, a court held that it was a fair use for a biographer to use a modest amount of material from unpublished letters and journals by the author Richard Wright. (Wright v. Warner Books, Inc., 953 F.2d 731 (2d Cir. 1991).) When Is a Use a 'Fair Use'? There are five basic rules to keep in mind when deciding whether or not a particular use of an author's work is a fair use: Rule 1: Are You Just Copying or Creating Something New? The purpose and character of your intended use of the material involved is the single most important factor in determining whether a use is a fair use. The question to ask here is whether you are merely copying someone else's work verbatim or instead using it to help create something new. The Supreme Court calls such a new work "transformative." The more transformative your work, the more likely your use is a fair use. Rule 2: Don't Compete With the Source You're Copying From. Without consent, you ordinarily cannot use another person's protected expression in a way that impairs (or even potentially impairs) the market for his or her work. Thus, if you want to use an author's protected expression in a work of your own that is similar to the prior work and aimed at the same market, your intended use isn't likely a fair use. For example, say Nick, a golf pro, writes a book on how to play golf. Not a good putter himself, he copies several brilliant paragraphs on putting from a book by Lee Trevino, one of the greatest putters in golf history. Because Nick intends his book to compete with and hopefully supplant Trevino's, this use could not be a fair use. In effect, Nick is trying to use Trevino's protected expression to eat into the sales of Trevino's own book. An interesting example is when a teacher copies parts of books for students to use. In one recent case, a group of seven major publishers went to court and stopped a duplicating business from copying excerpts from books without permission, compiling them into "course packets" and selling them to college students. Rule 3: Giving the Author Credit Doesn't Let You Off the Hook. Some people mistakenly believe that they can use any material as long as they properly give the author credit. Not true. Giving credit and fair use are completely separate concepts. Either you have the right to use another author's material under the fair use rule or you don't. The fact that you attribute the material to the other author doesn't change that. Rule 4: The More You Take, the Less Fair Your Use Is Likely to Be. The more material you take, the less likely it is that your use will FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 6 7 Mar 2005 be a fair use. However, to preserve the free flow of information, authors have more leeway in using material from factual works (scholarly, technical, scientific works, etc.) than to works of fancy such as novels, poems and plays. This is true especially where it's necessary to use extensive quotations to ensure the accuracy of the information conveyed. As a general rule, never quote more than a few successive paragraphs from a book or article, or take more than one chart or diagram. It is never proper to include an illustration or other artwork in a book or newsletter without the artist's permission. Don't quote more than one or two lines from a poem. Many publishers require their authors to obtain permission from an author to quote more then a specified number of words, ranging from about 100 to 1000 words. Contrary to what many people believe, there is no absolute word limit on fair use. For example, it is not always okay to take one paragraph or less than 200 words. Copying 12 words from a 14-word haiku poem wouldn't be fair use. Nor would copying 200 words from a work of 300 words likely qualify as a fair use. However, copying 2000 words from a work of 500,000 words might be fair. It all depends on the circumstances. Rule 5: The Quality of the Material Used Is as Important as the Quantity. The more important the material is to the original work, the less likely your use of it will be considered a fair use. In one famous case, The Nation magazine obtained a copy of Gerald Ford's memoirs before their publication. In the magazine's article about the memoirs, only 300 words from Ford's 200,000-word manuscript were quoted verbatim. The Supreme Court ruled that this was not a fair use because the material quoted (dealing with the Nixon pardon) was the "heart of the book ...the most interesting and moving parts of the entire manuscript," and that pre-publication disclosure of this material would cut into value or sales of the book. Determining whether your intended use of another author's protected work constitutes a fair use is usually not difficult. It's really just a matter of common sense. There is no more commonsensical definition of fair use than the golden rule: Take from someone else only what you wouldn't mind someone taking from you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 7 7 Mar 2005 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= Fidonet Related Websites Thom LaCosta 1:261/1352 02/17/2005 One approach to tracking and viewing Fidonet related websites is to visit webrings that specialize in Fidonet. A webring is a method where sites having a common theme advertise other websites with simailar themes. The advantage to the webring concept is that in theory, the sites have an interest in maintaining an accuate listing and can modify their own listings on a site by site basis. It appears that there are two fidonet webrings....the long-running system at http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=fidonet and another at http://www.fidonet.us/fidoring/ The ring at webring.com is larger, but forces the viewer to look at google ads panels. The smaller ring at fidonet.us does not depend on adverstising revenue from ads. Sysops with Fidonet related websites should consider joining one or both rings. Ring News 02/17/2005 Fidonet webring welcomes BGD Consulting and Graphics BBS Sysop : Barry Davis Jr 01/15/2004 Welcome to Fidotel -- Free access to Fidonet via Telnet & the Web. Sysop: Shannon Talley 12/27/2004 Welcome to The Thunderbolt -- A Weather Wonder(Arkansas, US) Sysop: Daryl Stout 12/5/2004 It's a pleasure to welcome two new BBS systems to the fidonet.us webring: Pucela BBS (Valladolid, Spain) Sysop: Komunero The Realm of Darkness BBS Sysop: Ken Bowley The most current version of the list below can be viewed at http://www.fidonet.us/fidoring/sitelist.html WWW.FIDONET.US - WEBRING PARTICIPANTS BBBS Charlotte and N4RPS.net Home Page Web Page of N4RPS, Rob Sargeant, and Web portal for BBBS Charlotte, FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 8 7 Mar 2005 a Fidonet BBS located in Charlotte, North Carolina USA (1:379/2). http://www.n4rps.net - 6-November-2003 Fidonet - Net261 - Maryland Fidonet in Maryland - Net261 http://www.fidonet.us/net261/ - 2-March-2003 Rocasa BBS Rocasa BBS is a system accessible as both a traditional Bulletin Board System, via landline or telnet, as well as via the Web for message and file access. It is also the home of the BBBS FDN. http://bbs.rocasa.org - 16-June-2003 < E-Mail/News Gateway | | Program. Meltdown-BBS |UI |http://meltdown-bbs.sourceforge.net/ | | meltdown-bbs.project.petkan | | @spamgourmet.com | | Fido: 2:350/5 | | Meltdown-BBS is an FTN <-> | | Web/PHP/MySQL BBS forum system. MakeNL |U | http://hub2000.darktech.org/makenl | | fidonet.hub2000 [at] gmail [dot] com | | Fido: 1:229/2000 | | FidoNet Nodelist Processor FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 14 7 Mar 2005 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ National BBS List |? | http://www.usbbs.org Hispanic FIDO/BBS's |? | http://www.conecta2.org/pucela_bbs/ (in Spanish only) | | (Extensive software & BBS Listings) +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ File Archives: http://archives.thebbs.org http://www.filegate.net http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org http://www.juge.com http://www.dmine.com/bbscorner/ http://garbo.uwasa.fi http://www.simtel.net http://wuarchive.wustl.edu http://maximus.midnightshour.org http://hobbes.nmsu.edu Note: most also provide FTP access (use ftp:// instead of http:// above) *=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=* Please send corrections & additions to: Robert Couture, 1:229/2000 E-Mail: rpa4email (at) rogers (dot) com Telnet: runekeep.darktech.org (Leave Feedback as Guest or create an account) Emeritus: Ben Ritchey, Todd Cochrane, Frank Vest, Peter Popovich ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 15 7 Mar 2005 ================================================================= SPECIAL INTEREST ================================================================= Nodelist Stats Input nodelist nodelist.063 size 803.6kb date 2005-03-04 The nodelist has 6609 nodes in it and a total of 9195 non-comment entries including 6 zones 47 regions 380 hosts 468 hubs admin overhead 901 ( 13.63 %) and 1112 private nodes 259 nodes down 314 nodes on hold off line overhead 1685 ( 25.50 %) Speed summary: >9600 = 595 ( 9.00 %) 9600 = 5656 ( 85.58 %) (HST = 114 or 2.02 %) (CSP = 0 or 0.00 %) (PEP = 1 or 0.02 %) (MAX = 0 or 0.00 %) (HAY = 1 or 0.02 %) (V32 = 2937 or 51.93 %) (V32B = 248 or 4.38 %) (V34 = 3864 or 68.32 %) (V42 = 3237 or 57.23 %) (V42B = 248 or 4.38 %) 2400 = 55 ( 0.83 %) 1200 = 7 ( 0.11 %) 300 = 296 ( 4.48 %) ISDN = 531 ( 8.03 %) ---------------------------------------------------------- File Req Flag Applicable software Number of systems ---------------------------------------------------------- XA Frontdoor <1.99b 2187 Frontdoor 2.02+ Dutchie 2.90c Binkleyterm >2.1 D'Bridge <1.3 TIMS Xenia -------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 16 7 Mar 2005 XB Binkleyterm 2.0 8 Dutchie 2.90b -------------------------------------- XC Opus 1.1 7 -------------------------------------- XP Seadog 6 -------------------------------------- XR Opus 1.03 39 -------------------------------------- XW Fido >12M 280 Tabby KittenMail -------------------------------------- XX D'Bridge 1.30 2925 Frontdoor 1.99b Intermail 2.01 T-Mail -------------------------------------- None QMM 1157 -------------------------------------- CrashMail capable = 2057 ( 31.12 %) MailOnly nodes = 3707 ( 56.09 %) Listed-only nodes = 519 ( 7.85 %) Other = 326 ( 4.93 %) [Report produced by NETSTATS - A PD pgm available from 1:106/100] [ Revised by B Felten, 2:203/208] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 17 7 Mar 2005 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= How to Submit an Article If you wish to submit an article for inclusion in the Fidonews, here are some guidelines, if you send it as an attached file; the preferred method if you want reasonable control over how the published article will appear in the Fidonews: a) Plain ASCII text. If you could type it on your keyboard, it's probably quite OK. No line may be longer than 70 characters. b) Put a title to the article. Put the title in two times. The first time, on the first line, with an * before it. The second time, on the second line, without the * and centered. This will help in the format since the title with the * is removed and used in the index, the second line will become the headline. On the third line, put your name and FidoNet address, present or former. If former, you may want to add some other address where you can be reached for personal comments. c) Deadline for article submission is Sunday, 12:00 UTC. Help the Editor by following the above guides. Below are some subjects and the file extension for the article as set in the configuration file for the making of the Fidonews. Please help by putting the file extension of the correct subject on the file name if known.. Ideas for Subject areas: Subject File | Subject File ----------------------------------|---------------------------------- From the *C's *.css | Rebuttals to articles *.reb Fidonet Regional News *.reg | Fidonet Net News *.net Retractions *.rtx | General Fidonet Articles *.art Guest Editorial *.gue | Fidonet Current Events *.cur Fidonet Interviews *.inv | Fidonet Software Reviews *.rev Fidonet Web Page Reviews *.web | Fidonet Notices *.not Getting Fidonet Technical *.ftc | Question Of The Week *.que Humor in a Fido Vein *.hfv | Comix in ASCII *.cmx Fidonet's Int. Kitchen *.rec | Poet's Corner *.poe Clean Humor & Jokes *.jok | Other Stuff *.oth Fidonet Classified Ads *.ads | Corrections *.cor Best of Fidonet *.bof | Letters to the Editor *.let If you don't know or are not sure, send the article anyway. Put a .TXT on it and I'll try to figure out where it should be in the Fidonews. If you follow these simple guidelines, there should be little problem in getting your article published. If your submission is too far out of specs for the Fidonews, it will be returned to you and/or a message sent informing you of the problem. This DOES NOT mean that your article is not accepted. It means that there is something in it that I can not fix and I need your help on it. FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 18 7 Mar 2005 Send articles via e-mail or netmail, file attach or message to: Bj”rn Felten Fidonet 2:2/2 E-Mail bfelten @ telia dot com IMPORTANT! If you send the article via e-mail, make sure you put the word "fidonews" somewhere in the subject line! That way it will always pass the spam filter, ending up in the proper folder. Please include a message, telling me that you have sent an article. That way I will know to look for it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-10 Page 19 7 Mar 2005 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Editor: Bj”rn Felten, 2:2/2 | | Crash mail attached: Editor@2:2/2 | | E-Mail attached: bfelten @ telia dot com | | Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, jb@fidonews.org | | Columnist: Frank Vest - Frank's Column | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince | | Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, | | Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink, | | Doug Meyers, Warren D. Bonner, Frank L. Vest | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet. Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2005 by Bj”rn Felten, though authors retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinions expressed by the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to the Editor at one of the addresses above. The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS. These sources are normally available through your Network Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from the following sources: + -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | File request from 2:2/2: | | current issue FIDONEWS | | back issue, volume v, issue ii FNEWSvii.ZIP | | | | On the web: | | http://felten.dyndns.org/fidonews | | http://www.fidonet.ca/fidonews | | | | The Snooze *and* the FIDONEWS echo in your newsreader: | | news://felten.dyndns.org/FIDONEWS | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + -----------------------------------------------------------------