It was from net.geeks that I first heard the idea that 'information wants to be free', and the Internet does in many ways to be a bastion of free speech and freedom of information. As long as you pay the connection fees, you can grab whatever information you like. Of course, in 99% of cases you could find the same information using conventional means, but Web or Net access often simplifies the search, particularly if the information you were seeking has to do with the computing industry in its many guises.
The thing that really made me think about this issue was a case in Australia where Phillip Adams published a book entitled Jokes from Cyberspace. As one would expect, this book was simply made up of thousands of jokes which Adams and his team of 'researchers' had apparently collected from various sources on the Internet. I say 'apparently' because there is absolutely no mention of sources for any of these jokes. Now if I was to type a copy of Adams' other works in, make them available from this web-site, and implicitlyt claim them as my own by not indicating my source, Adams' lawyers would be down on me like a ton of bricks. I'm sure that Phillip Adams made damn sure of his legal position before he published anything, so I'd be very surprised if he's done anything that is illegal, but it seems to me that cases like this do go against the laws of natural justice, if not the laws of any one land.
timnfromoz
© 1997 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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