>Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 11:44:43 >To: pianotech list >From: Conrad Hoffsommer <hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu> >Subject: List business -- How private are your postings? >Cc: ptg-l@ptg.org caut@ptg.org > >Piano type listers: > >This reminds me of a discussion we had on pianotech some time ago. I don't think we have any similar problems now, but felt it could be food for thought. > >(I do have his permission to send it on as long as I give credit - hence the header.) > >>Sender: Harpsichords and Related Topics <HPSCHD-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU> >>From: Ben Chi <BEC@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU> >>Organization: University at Albany Computing and Network Services >>Subject: List business -- How private are your postings? >>Comments: To: Pipe Organs and Related Topics <piporg-l@albany.edu> >>To: HPSCHD-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU >> >>A subscriber wrote privately not long ago to the piporg-l list owners >>about the following situation: It seems that he and some others engaged >>in a frank and not always complimentary exchange on the list regarding >>some topic whose content is immaterial for the present discussion. The >>subscriber was subsequently dismayed to find that this exchange had been >>quoted at length in a print publication without permission having been >>sought from anybody and felt that confidentiality conventions, if not >>copyright, had been violated. >> >>What should our mutual understanding be regarding the confidentiality of >>communications in such situations? I think that a clear distinction has >>to be made between the case where one-to-one correspondence is involved >>and that where the mail is directed to a body of (mostly unknown) indi- >>viduals. In the former case, there is a widely-accepted convention that >>the communication is private and not to be quoted without permission. >> >>In my view, this does not apply to the latter case, where one posts to a >>group >>whose membership one does not control.<< And if one cannot con- >>trol the composition of one's audience, the net effect is that of a >>>>public statement<< in which case all privacy rights are surrendered. >>That the posting is public follows, a fortiori, from the fact the list >>archives are accessible to everybody (not just subscribers) via the >>piporg-l web page. >> >>All that said, commonly-accepted conventions require that such quotings >>be done with attribution to both the writer and the list so that someone >>who wished to do so could go to the source to check for accuracy and >>context. (This apparently was not done in this particular instance.) >> >>Executive summary: >> >>1. Postings to the list should be regarded as in the public record. >>Don't post something you wouldn't want to see in print. >> >>2. If a posting is to be reproduced elsewhere, provide sufficient in- >>formation to guide the reader to the source, namely the list archives. >> >> /bec >> >> > > Conrad Hoffsommer Office - (319) 387-1204 Acoustic Keyboard Technician hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu Luther College pno2ner@salamander.com 700 College Drive Quod capita tot sensus. Decorah, Ia 52101
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