E-mail Privacy // The power of analogy
Gertjan van Oosten
gertjan at west.nl
Tue Jun 11 01:30:28 AEST 1991
henry at ADS.COM (Henry Mensch) writes:
> In article <Nk13311w164w at bluemoon.uucp> sbrack at bluemoon.uucp
> (Steven S. Brack) writes:
> > Then, if the company wanted to see the manuscipt it lets you use
> > your PC or UNIX account to write, they can?
> it's not clear what the purpose of this manuscript is, but they almost
> certainly have a right to do this.
[...stuff deleted...]
> (proof you used their facilities
> to do the work may entitle them to payment for that use, or
> part-ownership in the resulting work).
Wow, the opportunities this gives rise to!
Take the following analogies (if you don't believe in the power of analogy,
they still are fun):
[computer equipment]
- if I borrow someone's pen to write a chapter of my new novel, that person
becomes part-owner of the work;
[disk space]
- if I borrow a piece of paper for the manuscript, I am no longer the sole
author;
[temporary disk space]
- even worse: if, during a long wait at the Housing Department, I use their
desk to put my notebook on and scribble down part of the plot, it has
become government property...
Does anyone want to borrow my pen for their next best-seller???
Sorry to interrupt (nothing personal against Henry Mensch or Steven S.
Brack), but I was getting tired of this discussion.
So far, I have seen few educated responses and lots of silly arguments
(mainly repetitions of "if you use their equipment, it's theirs").
Regards,
-- Gertjan van Oosten, gertjan at west.nl OR gertjan at westc.uucp
-- West Consulting bv, Bagijnhof 80, 2611 AR Delft, The Netherlands
-- P.O. Box 3318, 2601 DH Delft
-- Tel: +31-15-123190, Fax: +31-15-147889
Blackadder: "I'll be back before you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism'..."
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