[DECtalk] Some adult files removed from the archive

Tony Baechler tony at baechler.net
Fri Dec 23 02:42:55 EST 2005


Hi,

As some of you might remember from the last days of Andre, I stated that I 
would host the archive but would not allow adult material.  At that time, I 
was far more strict about it than I am now.  My standards have relaxed on 
that and I won't make an issue out of it.  I still can't host those files 
because of my cable provider and their policies, and now I'm mostly out of 
disk space so hosting wouldn't be an option anyway.

As I see it, you have two problems.  The first is the adult material.  The 
second is the copyrighted material.  If you set up a secondary archive for 
one, what about the other?  I think a good idea is to set up a separate 
adult archive but this doesn't eliminate the problem of Red Dwarf.  In 
theory, since planetmirror.com is in Australia, it might not be as much of 
a copyright issue and the truth is that the BBC wouldn't care.  However, 
whether someone in the US downloads it from the US or from Australis, it 
still doesn't make it legal.  How does this relate to the adult 
material?  Because if you isolate the adult and copyrighted files, there is 
nothing left.  If we really want to be technical, we can say that all of 
Patrick's files are copyrighted too even though they have been floating 
around for years.  He isn't going to sue obviously but they don't have a 
free license either.

I don't know if this helps your decision any, but last I looked, 
planetmirror.com still mirrors a popular Apple II archive.  I wouldn't 
mention it except that at least 90% of the software is still under 
copyright.  That may change though since Australia has now adopted a more 
strict set of laws.  If someone ever figures it out, that archive and 
probably the DEC-Talk archive will both be gone.

Anyway, to get back to the original question, yes, I think a secondary 
archive is best.  Make it not mirrored or make it obvious in the .message 
and README files that this is an adult site.  Hopefully you won't lose your 
DSL.  I don't know what to say about copyrighted material, that's 
difficult.  For the general archive, definitely adopt a non-offensive 
policy.  Nothing worse than a PG or PG13 rating, which is still fairly 
liberal considering.  If it's obviously an adult theme, move it to the 
second archive.  There are some adult sites that might be willing to mirror 
the adult portion, but offhand I don't know of them and it's better to let 
them approach you.




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