CompuServe Messages

I'm sure that many of you have seen the article in InfoWorld (or will in the next few days). I am as concerned over these events as you are although for different reasons. What was reported in InfoWorld as fact is mostly fantasy and innuendo (and a remarkable lack of competent reporting by not checking the 'real' facts). CompuServe does NOT in any way claim ownership of public domain material found on CompuServe. The author (or legal copyright holder) of any material found in any forum database retains his rights. Many authors have distribution restrictions on programs they upload to CompuServe. They give exclusive distribution rights to CompuServe and/or a specific forum. What happened in this case (and not truthfully reported) was that an author who had given exclusivity to a forum on CompuServe for the distribution of his programs complained to CompuServe that his material was found on a subscription BBS system. The BBS operator was contacted by CompuServe and was asked to remove the copyrighted material. There was quite a discussion of this event in MAUG(tm) when the incident originally took place. In the following message what actually took place is detailed — not the invention InfoWorld chose to publish as fact.