No one has mentioned copyright laws in this debate. US copyright laws have changed in recent years and it seems that usenet postings now enjoy copyright protection in the US, with some exceptions. From what I've read on this topic the public/private nature of the posting site does not affect this protection. -Sheri Repucci National Coalition of Independent Scholars ==========================================
Message: 3 Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:11:30 -0600 From: "Mark D. Johns" <johnsmar@luther.edu> Subject: Re: [Air-l] internet research and confidentiality To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.0.20041222121958.01a12008@pop.luther.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 10:42 AM 12/22/2004, Thomas Koenig wrote:
What matters for me, is not assumptions or expectations, but the mere fact that something is obviously publicly available.
Thomas continues to support his points with language of "I think...," "I wish...," and "what matters for me." Well and good. He is entitled to his opinions (some of which I happen to share). However, I hope that anyone still reading this thread by now has caught my point that, despite what we might think or wish for (even at Christmastime), restrictions apply with which we might not agree, but by which we will nevertheless be forced to abide.
When I hear "blogging" I assume, it is an unprotected webblog. What leads you to the assumption that it is not? Oriana would surely have mentioned this detail, as it seems obvious to me that password-protection might lead to different considerations.
Assumptions are what get us into trouble. My assumption was not that the site was public or not, but that Oriana needed to make her own determinations. To assume that everything is public unless protected in a certain way that WE would consider adequate does not make it so. Again, my personal opinion, or Thomas's, is rather beside the point.
Yes, I agree, but I still have not seen any national laws, which would relegate the typical webblog to the private sphere.
There is not a lot of explicit legislation, for which I am very thankful. I, for one, would like to keep it that way by not having some huge public scandal about someone's misguided research. The track record of legislation in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world would not suggest that it would go in our favor as researchers (see, for example, the highly restrictive Communications Decency Act of 1996 in the U.S. Fortunately that law was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. But there's no guarantee, particularly in the climate of the current administration, that we would be as fortunate the next time.). Legislation governing research is already more restrictive in the E.U., generally, than in the U.S.
But the absence of legislation does not mean there is no law governing these issues. The body of law is expanded whenever a civil litigation is settled and precedents are set. In the U.S., certainly, and elsewhere, the litigious atmosphere has made institutions extremely cautious, and IRBs have become far more concerned with covering the institutional backside from lawsuits than in following the letter of the legislation while guaranteeing academic freedom. The pressure upon, and the level of apprehension within, IRBs is considerable.
The AoIR guidelines are designed to serve three purposes: First, they help us to be ethical researchers who respect the human subjects of our research -- that's a given. But more, they also help us design research projects that will not run afoul of these highly apprehensive IRBs. Third, they help IRBs set standards for Internet research that are reasonable. However restrictive some may find the AoIR guidelines to be, they have been a light burden, indeed, compared to some of the (in my view) completely unreasonable restrictions imposed upon many researchers by zealous IRBs who have neither understood nor cared to understand the technology or the nuances of what constitutes public or private, but who simply feared anything they didn't fully understand might get them sued. The guidelines can be used by researchers in their negotiations with IRBs to demonstrate a reasonable standard that enjoys wide, international acceptance. (By the way, the AoIR Ethics Committee hopes that any who have used the guidelines in this way will report their experience at http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/AoIR/AoIRform.htm.)
This will be my final word on this thread for now. However, it remains dangerous on many levels for us, as internet researchers, to make decisions based solely on our own opinions or assumptions. We owe it to ourselves, our research subjects, our institutions, and to the wider research community to be deliberate and careful about our methods and the reporting of our findings. This does not mean that we will all reach the same conclusions. It certainly does not mean that I, or AoIR, or anyone else, can dictate to Thomas or to Oriana how they must proceed. What it means is that none of us will be quick jump in and decide, without careful deliberation and negotiation, what is permitted and what is restricted in any given situation.
------ Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain