Re: Picky .sig trend

In article <4em4s3$15a@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>, Cathy Kipp <ckipp@vth1.vth.colostate.edu> wrote: :Many people seem to be writing: :-> :->========================================================================= :->= ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. = :->= This posting is copyright and may be used only for the purposes = :->= of professional study. Use of this posting in any commercial = :->= environment is explicity prohibited. This posting may only be = :->= reproduced for personal archival purposes. = :->========================================================================= : :Would somebody mind telling me how I am missing the boat? This .sig seems to :becoming quite trendy, but I don't even feel comfortable responding to people :who use it. Suppose I respond to a question and someone has this .sig and I :use some of the original text to answer the question. It seems to me whether :it's a personal reply or a posting I could somehow be legally liable and it's :not worth it for offering free comments and advice. : :Does this .sig bug anyone else? Or am I missing the boat on this trend??? : :Regards, : :- Cathy I think that if you charge money to provide someone with an excerpt from an article bearing this notice, you'd be in violation. But if you're replying for free over Usenet, I don't think you have anything to worry about. That's not a "commercial" use, and Usenet is not generally considered a "commercial" environment. What's happening is that some people have been collecting archives of technical newsgroups and then publishing them for profit or charging money for download access. That violates the free exchange ethos of Usenet and some folks want to discourage that. -r