So how is posting to yahoo any different that posting to a newsgroup? Yahoo only claims ownership of content so that it has the legal right to delete copyright infringement, warez, illegal content (e.g. inciting hate, child porn), etc. If you post to a newsgroup, you in theory, retain copyright, but in practice you do not. Your IP if available for anyone to use, without traceability. Given that I was appalled to find that piclist was being gated out to a newsgroup without my knowledge, I too am unlikely to post 'useful' IP anywhere but on a closed list. I feel that a yahoogroup is a 'controlled circulation' list in that piclistmit archives are only readable by subscribers so one has a tiny idea of whom is using your IP. James has made great efforts to prevent the piclist from being raided by robots, but I think there is no easy way to protect one's IP short of not divulging it. By way of example, on QCUIAG I suggested a way to get long exposures from CCD web cams by interrupting the vertical transfer pulse using simple logic gates controlled by a PC parallel port. One of the members successfully applied this idea to a camera, and posted details of how he'd done it. The modification now bears HIS name for ALL CCD camera mods being made by QCUIAG members. He has even gone so far as to claim copyright for the technique, demanding that commercial users license his IP from him. Needless to say, I'm a bit pissed since it was my 'idea' that they are using. Unfortunately one cannot patent 'ideas', only embodiments. Yeah, right. Anyone remember the retroactive Gould laser patents? Having learned my lesson, I (and many others I'm sure) are only going to divulge the obvious on any publicly accessible piclist (mailman, or any other). So James, does a mailman on MIT piclist exist yet? Robert Sergio Masci wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Howard Winter > To: > Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 9:25 PM > Subject: Re: (null) > > > Peter, > > > > On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 21:56:26 +0300, Peter L. Peres wrote: > > > > >...< > > > I would not like to join a yahoo group, not because of the privacy issue, > > > but because of the IP ownership issue. I do not post to the single yahoo > > > list I am a member of if I can help it. Yahoo is owned indirectly by > > > Microsoft and anything posted there becomes in part their property. They > > > have perfectly good reasons for that. And I have mine for not posting > > > there. If this list will move to Yahoo I will become a silent member, at > > > most. > > > > I agree completely - Yahoo is not the sort of place for this list, in my > opinion. I have had real hassle with > > Yahoo groups (and egroups after they took them over) in the past, and in the > end decided to have nothing more to do with them. > > > > Please don't take this list there! > > > > Cheers, > > > > Howard Winter > > Yes, I also subscribe to some yahoo groups and am virtually silent on them due > to IP ownership issues. > > Recently I posted some stuff on parallel adding, I would NOT have done this is > the piclist had been hosted on yahoo. > > Regards > Sergio Masci -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads