[PLUG] software-project-todo

[Aditya Godbole]

2009/2/11 म.हा.सा.ग.र <o.s.h.o at guruvision.com>:
> ... much more than my posts perhaps...
> and he has a right to cite license to be followed for all of the text
> (s)he utters... because it is free (not as in free speech or beer but
> in some other way which follows that license)

Anyone has the right to attempt to put any license on his/her work.
But there are still some fundamental laws the govern copyright. One
cannot, for example prevent fair use. One cannot impose a license on
something that you put on public property. One cannot restrict use of
something that one knows is going to be archived, reproduced, quoted,
partly quoted in replies which are also going to be public.

Posting on a public mailing list is different from posting on a blog
or a website. A blog can have an identity associated with it and can
carry copyright notices, because the holder of the blog has a
responsibility of the content on it. Where there is a dispute on the
ownership of the content, like in the case of mailing list archives,
it becomes the responsibility of the owner of the site. In this case,
that is the owner of the PLUG site. Hence to avoid disputes, its up to
the owner of the site to impose some sort of license. If someone on
the list fails to comply with a CC license in a reply (which is
displayed in the archives), who then is responsible for copyright
infringement?
Hence the suggestion of discarding all legal ownership of the work
when posting on public mailing lists.

-aditya