10/12   How's this for a csua fundraising idea:  If someone put selected
        shit from the motd, as far back as various archives go, in a useful
        format and sold it as a book, I think a lot of people would buy it.
        There's some pretty funny/interesting/weird stuff in there.  Call
        it something like "a decade in the life of..."  -John
        \- Do you think so? Copyright 2004 Partha S. Banerjee --psb
           \_ Partha, your genital clamps are too tight again.  -John
              \_ Tell yermom to unclench her jaw, then.
              \- it's a joke, clod. --psb
                \_ Ditto, muppet.  -John
              \_ he has a point.  anyone who's posted to the motd could
                 in theory go after whoever published it for copyright
                 violation.  sure, it would be idiotic and annoying, but
                 take a look around.
                \_ when I TAed for a class, my professor said all of
                   my work and all of the students' work, like sample
                   exam, solutions, source code, etc (in another word,
                   all intellectual property) belongs to UC Regents,
                   and if UC really wants, it could use those materials
                   for anything including profit. So, by using UC
                   land, UC network, and UC computers,
                   "all your motd bases [are] belong to UC Regents".
                   \_ B.S. You signed a contract when you worked for UC.  motd
                      posters signed no such contract.
                      \_ Since the motd is anonymous and anyone can pretend to
                         be anyone else (and this has happened) and the motd is
                         also full of personal smears, the last thing anyone
                         would want is the lawsuits that would follow when
                         their name was attached to either end of any of the
                         motd attacks.
                         \_ What kind of liability do online discussion boards
                            have for anonymous libel posted to the board?
                            \_ The person who 'wrote' and published the book
                               would certainly have liability.  If 'the CSUA'
                               were to do so then ASUC and/or the UC Regents
                               and/or the Politburo (possibly all of them)
                               would have liability.  You can not escape
                               responsibility for your actions by hiding
                               behind some .org.  The real world just does not
                               work that way.  The RW just isn't that cute.
        \_ Due to potential problems with copyright and liability, how about
           this:  Bundle it all up in some printable electronic form like a
           PDF and put it up free for download.  Then next to that a link that
           says "Suggested CSUA donation: $10".  Copyright is covered because
           it's being distributed electronically for free, just like it was
           when first posted.  Libel issues are not totally covered but you
           could put some disclaimer like "All posting is anonymous.
           Attributions in postings may have been forged."
           \_ huh?  how does making it free solve the copyright problem?
              \_ It's being used in the same way as before:  Free public
                 electronic distribution.
           \_ See?  This is what I mean by 'cute', above.  Who exactly did this
              pdf bundling and zipping and posts the donation link?  That
              person, the politburo, ASUC, and the UC Regents are all good
              lawsuit targets.  Prior politburos who have now graduated but
              kept logs and now have lots of assests are the ones most likely
              to get hurt from this financially.  The CSUA is going to get
              hurt by being shut down by the Regents in the worst case.  Do
              not do stupid things like this for a few lousy $10 donations.
              Why is this not obvious to anyone with a high school education?