English as a lingua franca

[Mark Odegard]

>From: Paul Frank All I can say is that quoting a language-related article
>in a small
>electronic forum focused on the scholarly and not-for-profit (and downright
>unprofitable) discussion of language issues is not, to my limited
>knowledge,
>an infringement of copyright.

This 'small electronic forum' is directly/indirectly subbed to by every
spammer in the known universe, and said fiends spam my mailbox everyday
(thus hotmail).

*Anything* posted to the net becomes universally available.

Now. The real distinction of copyright is 'for profit' and 'fair use'.

I am loose and liberal when it comes to fair use. A blurb on a bookcover may
be quoted in toto under fair use (such a thing is so short, to not
completely quote it is UNfair use), but you can't post the whole
Encyclopaedia Britannica under the same conditions.

In the present case, a link would have been better (and less bandwidthy) (is
a bandwithy something to do with willow whips?).

Yes. I am one of those certain holes who do respect the property rights of
the author, and one who might be party to the restructuring of author-rights
under the realities of the internet.

But in the meantime, and on *this* list (particularly considering the a-holy
OUP and their squirrelly view of copyright vis-a-vis OED.point.something),
one is expected to be very respectful of copyright (you did give due
credit).

You do have a *harvard.edu sig. Are you ready to consign the Loeb Classical
Library (and the current updating thereto) to the public domain? I myself
would certainly like to have ALL these delightful diglot texts freebies, and
were it legal, would enthusiastically post them all to the net.


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