TOURBUS: Tuesday, October 15, 1996

DRIVER: Bob Rankin

TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP:
Copyright and Copy Wrongs


Greetings, Fellow Riders of the World's Largest Bus!

In my TOURBUS posting last week I printed two humorous pieces, noting
that they were sadly unattributed, and asked you to help me identify
the original sources for them.  I'm happy to report that I received
several messages from TOURBUS riders identify them both!

Lee Coursey did some serious net sleuthing and found that the author
of the Dr. Seuss parody is Gene Ziegler, a professor at Cornell.  But
there's a twist...  The poem I printed (which has been circulating
for some time) is only HALF of the original!  The full work is even
better and is titled "A Grandchild's Guide to Using Grandpa's Computer".
It can be found on Gene Ziegler's DIGITAL CLOCKTOWER web page at
http://www.gsm.cornell.edu/staff/Gene/clocktower.html

Ziegler Strikes Back
Understandably, Professor Ziegler was a bit miffed to learn that someone
had hacked and retitled his work, so he has responded with another poem
titled "Hang the Information Highwayman!"  A visit to Gene's page (see
address above) is well worth your while, but to give you an idea of how
he *really* feels, here's a snippet from the second poem:
> I've never met the miscreant who edited my work,
> but when I close my eyes and try, I can see the jerk!
> The eyes are tiny pixels, close together you will find,
> they're only separated by his narrow little mind.



Netaholics Unite!
The other piece I printed was "Top Signs of Net Addiction".  Several
readers wrote and said they thought it was from the TOP5 list by Chris
White, but this is not the case.  (There was a posting there with a
similar theme, but it was completely different.)

The source for this one was Pam Kagan's World Headquarters of Netaholics
Anonymous site at http://www.safari.net/~pam/netanon -- which by the way is really funny!  Be sure to pay a visit there as well.

Copyright and Copy Wrongs
Both of these cases underscore an important message.  There's a lot of
great stuff on the Net, and most of it is available without a fee.  But
just because something is free, it doesn't mean you are free to copy it.

Netizens should pay close attention to copyright notices attached to
online documents and abide by the wishes of the kind people who have
created and put that information online for you to use or enjoy.  If
you've never read Brad Templeton's information on copyrights, please
consider http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html required reading.

That said, I feel more comfortable making the announcement that I've
put the full text of two chapters from my "PAINLESS GUIDE TO THE
INTERNET" book online.  I hope you'll visit my home page and have
yourself a good read (see address the end of this message).

Surf By Mail?
Several riders have mentioned that they have no Web access, just an
e-mail account.  Not a problem!  Get my free guide "Accessing The
Internet By E-Mail" and find out how to retrieve almost any Internet
resource (including Web stuff) using simple e-mail commands.

To get the latest edition, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email

See you next time!  -Bob