What Should Go On The Net? (Was Anseorran Rules Website Overhaul)

[LIB_IMC at centum.utulsa.edu]

<Lorraine<stddly at SHSU.edu>>
>Since the Participants Handbook is part of Ansteorran Law did you ask
>Barn, Maire and the Crown their opinion before putting it on the net?
>And a question to the rest of you...
>What should we put on the net?
>...[Deleted for space]...

Some months ago, I was involved in a project to set up a "Home Page"
for our shire (a project which fell through for reasons that have nothing
to do with this thread), and this question came up more than once.
There are a large number of considerations to keep track of when doing
this, of which, the primary are Access and Copyright.

Had we decided to simply upload the shire's newsletter (not, BTW, an option
we really considered), we would have been placing at the disposal of anyone
on the 'Net, the mundane names and phone numbers of, at the very least,
our local officers.  Had we published our phone list (an idea that was
kicked around for about a tenth of a second), it would have been everyone
in the Shire's name and phone number (which includes, the last time I checked,
at least two otherwise Unlisted numbers).  We *could* have asked everyone
what they thought, and if they wanted to be included, but to be honest,
there was some doubt that enough would have been interested to make it
worth the effort.

In fact, several of the people we talked to expressed strong hesitation
about a simple list of (SCA-names only) people who live in or had
ever lived in the shire (perhaps listing things like their awards,
and so forth).  Since to do so "Without their permission" would be 
A Bad Thing (I tend to disagree, but when studying history, I spend
a lot of time rooting around in people's private lives...)

As for Copyright, this is a difficult area to make any firm statements
on, but I'll give it a try (For the record, I have spent the better part
of the last four years as an Interlibrary Loan Librarian, dealing with 
issues of Copyright and Fair Use).  However, I am not a Copyright, and this
is just my best guess.

Let's start with the basics.  Who's site is the material being housed 
on?  Does it belong to the SCA, or is it an unofficial site established 
by some person or other.  If it belongs to the SCA. than the SCA can put
anything it wants there that it holds the copyright on.  If it is an 
unofficial, personal site, then that person can place ANYTHING that they 
think they can get away with on that site (I am informed that "SCA Policy",
whether Kingdom or Corporate wasn't made clear, states that the local 
officers are responsible for overseeing any materials that go on-line
under a particular Shires's name.  The fact that there is no legal way
of enforcing this is, um, unfortunate).  If the material posted is 
*owned* (as in copyright protected) then the *owners* of that information
have the right, if not the obligation, to see that material is removed.
If they do NOT, this can be considered an abandonment of copyright.

The statement that "X material may be reproduced for distribution as long
as such and such conditions are met" says pretty clearly that they are
explicitly giving permission for *any* distribution, including electronic.
And by making such a statement, it can be argued that they are willing
to share their information, but not abandoning ownership.  I.e., for an
author's work to be so reproduced without asking, while in some cases
a breach of etiquette, isn't "wrong" (legally).

(It might be noted that with the way many web-browsers/search engines work,
to not have a copyright statement on *every page* may eventually mean that
you are abandoning ownership.  There are a lot of legal details that have
really not caught up to the photocopier technology, much less things like
the 'Net.)

So, were they wrong to do so?  Nope.  Who is responsible for the information
at that site?  The person who owns that account *only*.  Can the Kingdom
or the Society make that person take the document off?  Not without going
to court and *proving* that the Kingdom, or Corporate OWNS the original 
document, and that the authors had no right to claim Copyright (which 
would mean that the Kingdom of Ansterra would have to be shown to be
a concept that something corporate *owned*, a registered trademark
or somesuch).

I. Marc Carlson, Reference Technician   |Sometimes known as:       
McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa   | Diarmuit Ui Dhuinn 
2933 E. 6th St., Tulsa, OK  74104-3123  | University of Northkeep
LIB_IMC at CENTUM.UTULSA.EDU (918) 631-3794| Northkeepshire, Ansteorra