Violating Your Privacy

 Posted on 3/1/1996 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


All messages entered into the Compuserve system are copyrighted
by CIS, and the user; they cannot be posted elsewhere without the
permission of the sender, and the system. Mine are somewhat of an
exception, since they can be posted anywhere, but even there I had to
write specifically to AOL giving permission before they'd allow my
messages from here to be reprinted. It is always required to do this;
otherwise it's not only morally repugnant, it's illegal.

A user named Theron Fuller has just taken a great number of
your messages posted on the DS9 and B5 folders and reposted them to the
Internet (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5). Among those users whose messages
have been taken without their knowledge or permission are Rae
Augenstein, Anthony Davis, and Jose J. Ortiz Carlo. There are
apparently more. To verify this all you need to do is go over to that
forum and look for threads with "so you miss Joe Straczynski's
dialogue" -- or words to that effect -- in the thread.

From Theron's own statements, these were excerpted from a
*mailing list* which some individuals maintain for the sole purpose of
forwarding messages they think will do me harm. Or in general, to keep
track of me, as stalkers do. (This statement by Theron is also in the
same thread there.) One individual has indicated that this mailing list
was maintained by the Hall Brothers. So apparently your compuserve
messages (and AOL messages, and who knows how many others) have been
circulated without your knowledge or permission, posted and reposted on
other forums, and mailing lists. And now he has begun posting your
messages publicly.

This is a violation of both your copyright and that of
Compuserve. It is morally and ethically repugnant. It is illegal.

If you object, I suggest you contact Compuserve and register
your displeasure with this, and also the postmaster at Theron's
account, since he was the one who publicly violated your copyright, and
took your messages without your permission. (The users cited, btw, are
only the ones noted in the current batch of messages he reposted; the
odds are good that virtually *everyone* here has been excerpted and
remailed/reposted since this mailing list has been going on for some
time.) I would suggest you demand to have access to the mailing list
of all reposted messages from Compuserve (and that those on other
services do the same).

Theron Fuller's user id is fuller@ix.netcom.com and the
postmaster can likely be found there. I would also suggest that the
sysops here lodge a formal protest, and get CIS to do the same, in
order to protect the rights not only of CIS, but of the users to post
here and know that their words will not be excerpted, reposted, or
otherwise used in or out of context without their knowledge or
permission.

jms