Dan wrote... "Eero's analogy fails, first, because as far as copyright is concerned, USENET archives are *not* a library in the same way that print materials are. Using print materials does not entail making copies. Accessing USENET archives does -- at a minimum, as I said previously, making RAM copies." ET writes... You jest, surely :-) I go to the library, pick up a book off the shelf and browse - taking mental notes. I go to USENET, open a ng and browse - taking mental notes. I have achieved the same result. I go to the library, pick up a book off the shelf and write down some notes. I go to USENET, open an ng and write down some notes. I have achieved the same result. I go to the library, pick up a book off the shelf and photocopy some pages. I go to USENET, open an ng and save a few pages. I have achieved the same result. It is exactly the same thing - but if you dont want to see that, then its fine by me. But whether a library is the exact same as a newsgroup is not the real point here. The real point is that USENET and www are publicly available and, within the boundaries of the law, must be available for the researcher to acccess freely. This, to me, is beyond doubt. Are there any areas where a researcher is not free, yes. I would suggest that any area where an individual log in is required or where the data is not open to the public without membership means a researcher is not free to do as they please. Direct private communication like email is not available to a researcher to freely access. Thee are some grey areas like chat rooms. But when it comes to a freely available web page or newsgroup there can be no question a researcher is free to access(within the boundaries of the law) *** What I would like to see is some acknowledgement of this difference in the Ethics document. A simple explanation that there are two schools of thought with one group favouring high privacy values whilst the other favours high public access values would go a long way to ending this debate. I imagine that we are very close on most issues regarding access for researchers - except when it comes to www and USENET and similar forums. That would seem a reasonable request, wouldnt it?? regards, Eero Tarik Adelaide