I see this as both a legal and an ethical issue. As regards the ethics: Props for sparking a discussion, but I think the air-l policy statement is dispositive (and good advice for email generally). It reads, in part: ------ ETIQUETTE Keep in mind that anything you send to air-l automatically goes to all subscribers – please keep posts on-topic for the list. Also remember when posting to the list that air-l is a public forum and that your words will be available to everyone subscribed to the list and placed in a public archive. Messages sent via email can easily be reproduced and circulated beyond their originally intended audience, and neither the list manager, the association's officers, nor the server’s host are responsible for consequences arising from list messages being re-distributed. ------ See: http://aoir.org/?q=node/5 Legally: I'm no attorney, but this is really a copyright issue, and as such, I'd be entirely comfortable arguing that copyright is no obstacle to almost any conceivable academic use of an academic listserv, at least not in the US. I know much less about other jurisdictions, but based on my much thinner knowledge of fair dealing, I'd predict a similar outcome, at least in most Commonwealth nations. (Those of you from outside the US: please excuse my jurisdictional Americentrism. If you think your courts would find differently, how so?) In any case, if you use listserv material for academic work in the US, you're almost certainly fine. US Code, Title 17, Section 107, reads, in part: ------ ... the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include — (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. ... ------ See: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 Each of these factors favors a finding of fair use here. The intended use is for nonprofit scholarship and education. The copyrighted work being quoted is something (a post to a free listserv) with absolutely no commercial value. (Posts have intellectual value, but we've already given them away.) The proposed project would reproduce mere fractions of each post. Finally, there is no concern about the effect on the marketability of something with no commercial value. I would argue that one could even include a full post if that's important to illustrate a point. (This is especially true for a short post.) Things are somewhat different when the quoted and quoting works are of a commercial nature--see Harper & Row v. Nation Enters., 471 U.S. 539 (1985). But virtually any academic use of listserv posts is almost certainly OK--at least in the US. Cheers, Bill Bill D. Herman Ph.D. Candidate Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1 Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:54:00 -0600 From: "Hall, Richard H." <rhall@mst.edu> Subject: [Air-L] Permission to quote air-l list To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Message-ID: <C3B635C8.18A5E%rhall@mst.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

On 1/18/08 10:20 AM, "Pam Brewer" <brewerpe@appstate.edu> wrote:

...

I would like to refer to this thread in my analysis as you all have made some excellent points. May I ask your permission to do so?

This is a really interesting question, to me. First of all, I was the one who originally asked this question and have really appreciated the thoughtful replies. Second, I had thought I might try and collect and summarize and post it to my blog, including quotes. My thinking was that this is a public list, but, now that I think about it, I had to get permission to join, and I don't think the archives are posted publicly (or are they?)

If one needs permission - who from?

I guess you would need to get permission from whoever you were quoting.

... Richard