Hi folks,

There has been some confusion and concern regarding the discussion about
publishing a searchable archive of vanagon mailing list postings.  Some
folks are really freaking out, so I wanted to clarify what is going on,
especially for the Type2 community, which hasn't been party to the entire
process.

Q)  What's happening with all this?

A)  There was some discussion on the Vanagon mailing list
    about making a printed or CD collection of the vanagon
    mailing list archives.  This got me (one of the two
    administrators) thinking about copyright issues.  Legally,
    the current archives are dubious.  If the we followed copyright
    law to the letter, they would be deleted, as we have no explicit
    permission to distribute this work.

    In order to rectify this, and to continue to make this
    information available to everyone, we added the following
    legalese to the vanagon mailing list 'welcome' letter:

       +---------------+
       |  Permissions  |
       +---------------+

       One of the great things about the Vanagon mailing list is
       the large quantity of information exchanged by the members.
       In order to ensure the availability of this information,
       submitters to the vanagon mailing list agree to grant the
       list managers the right to printed and electronic
       distribution of submitted articles into compilations.
       List managers and their agents also have the right to make
       edits which, in their sole opinion, improve the clarity of
       the submission. Submitters warrant that, as far as they
       know, they have the right to submit the material in
       question for publication.

       Submitters wishing to retain exclusive copyright privileges,
       or who prefer their material be excluded from such
       publications, may decline this waiver by including the
       following phrase at the bottom of their message:

          "All Rights Reserved."

       (Note that since postings will be culled by software,
        the spelling and capitalization of this phrase must be
        exact.)

       Any profits from list compilations will go exclusively
       towards the operation of the Vanagon mailing
       list and vanagon mailing list web site.

Q)  Are you trying to make money off of my postings?

A)  Nope.  Note the last paragraph of the quoted text above.  Any
    profits will go EXCLUSIVELY towards the operation of the vanagon
    mailing list.  Chris and I will not see a penny of this money,
    except as caretakers.

Q)  How can you grab the copyright for the stuff I write?

A)  That's not what we're doing.  We're simply asking folks for the
    right to publish anything posted to the vanagon list.  This allows
    us to have an on-line archive, as well as to make off-line
    collections available.  The author still holds the copyright.

Q)  Will I have to pay for the archives if I don't buy the CD?

A)  Absolutely not.  It's not our intention to take the archives
    'offline'.  Rather, some members of the community are talking about
    making a CD version of the archives available as an alternative.
    (And probably faster, as well.)

Q)  But if you're making money off the published collection,
    why would it be in your interest to make it available online
    for free?

A)  Because we're volunteers, working for the bus community.  We're
    not businessfolk.  In the case of the published (offline)
    collections, we feel that we should use the volunteer efforts
    putting the collection together to raise money for the
    list.

Q)  What if I don't want my past postings published by the vanagon
    mailing list?

A)  No problem.  Drop me a note and we'll stop publishing them
    as soon as we can figure out how to extract them from the
    archive.

Q)  How much will the CD rom containing the archives cost?

A)  Probably around $10-15.

Please feel free to write me if you have any questions.  coyote@vanagon.com

Coyote