Posted by anna78 on January 18, 2001, at 16:16:35
In reply to Re: Guinea pigs and their words--no copyright, posted by Abby on January 17, 2001, at 22:07:00
No, in fact, i have a lawyer friend who tells me that i don't have to assert copyright.. i have it the minute i write these words down. They are mine, to use as I see fit. Only by my agreeing expressly, in writing, otherwise can someone use my words. Dr. Bob's saying otherwise simply doesn't make it so. He's a doc, not a lawyer..personally, i have no problem if the good doctor chooses to do research with people coming here for support. My problem was with the fact that he didn't really say anything about this possibility up-front (to give people the chance to opt-out of his little experiment).. alluding to it and coming out and saying, 'I'm going to write ya'll up in some medical journal' are two different things and Dr. Bob should surely know better.
I'm also concerned by the fact that people's screen names were used in the article, and in fact, an entire poem was published.. whether it was with permission or not, we don't know, 'cuz Dr. Bob hasn't yet said...... still waiting to hear about these two issues before saying anything else.
in the future, I (and i would guess others?) might feel better if it were told to us that we were going to be subjects for some study or something he's writing.... tenure or not, university position or not (this doesn't seem to be a university-based Web site? seems like it's his own personal website)... he should let us know up-front, explicitly.
> Just to be clear about this. I know very little about copyright, but I do know that copyright needs to be asserted in advance by someone claiming it. Also, not all words are copyrightable e.g. you can't copyright the news.
>
> Beyond that, we know that Dr. Bob is in an academic post and needs to get tenure etc. We've gotten a fair amount of free medical advice from which we benefit. Also, maybe some psychiatrists will gain a deeper appreciation for their patients.
>
> Abby
poster:anna78
thread:232
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20001124/msgs/254.html