[Off topic] allowed to put Python material on the Web?

[Peter Hansen]

Erik Max Francis wrote:
> 
> Sheila King wrote:
> 
> > Technically, once the messages are posted to Usenet, anyone can
> > archive and
> > copy them.
>         ...
> > Authors of Usenet posts still retain copyright to
> > their own
> > material.
> 
> These two statements are inconsistent with one another.  (The latter is
> the one that is correct, by the way.)

This is Usenet!  I dare anyone to sue me for having their
postings cached on my hard drive (archived _and_ copied!).
Dang, maybe I should sue all of _you_, for having had the gall
to post those messages and consume all my valuable hard
drive space.  Who gave you permission, anyway?  :-)

I seriously doubt anyone posting code snippets in Usenet 
retains much practical right not to have their snippets
spread throughout the world, and possibly make it
into a book somewhere.  Yes, legally, perhaps, this
would violate some aspect of the law, but I strongly 
doubt the argument would ever win in court.  

You'd probably have to demonstrate that you seriously
believed everybody else realized you didn't want them
to reuse your publicly posted material, even though
you posted it _voluntarily_ in direct response to 
their inquiry, and then show that you actually 
suffered as a result.  (Don't bother posting about
what the "law" might say about this -- it's *never*
been to court on this topic and a case probably
wouldn't last ten minutes without being tossed.)

IANAL-ly-yr's