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Susan Lerner and Taylor Cushman have both written from the perspective of
legal authority, and SL's clarification of copyright laws was most helpful.
I must say, though, that I found TC's response to my attempt to reason this
through from the perspective of how scholars use each other's work inthe
classroom to be intemperate.  As TC asked for other opinions, I supplied
mine, which is that the celiac list may be an environment of sharing infor-
mation similar to a large survey course, where photocopies are distributed
to hundreds of students, most of whom would have trouble affording the
dozen or two (at least) academic books at $35-50 from which these teaching
resources are drawn.  Allow me to clarify that I was not attempting to
_argue against_ TC or question his erudition in the field of copyright
law.  I was attempting to think through the issue from another angle, whic
seems eminently appropriate to such a thorny and ambiguous question as
circulation of information on the net.  Academics are working through legal
and collegial issues every day as we decide whether and how to circulate
journals on line, and with a wide variety of results.  Physics papers are
circulated before print publication in some fields, for example; historians
are still poking along at a pace of one to two years between writing an
article and seeing it in print, without using the internet in the interval.
 
I realise of course that cookbooks represent considerable time and effort
for which the authors should be paid.  At no point did I question the need
to support these authors or respect their rights; I simply asked whether
one or two recipes might not fall under the same provisions that allow us
to photocopy a set percentage of any given book for circulation in the
classroom or at a workshop or seminar for discussion.  And SL and I are in
agreement that such circulation could be free publicity for the authors.
TC's statement that such an action amounts to piracy is inflammatory, and
inaccurate.  Piracy as I have seen it practiced in the Middle East is the
copying of an entire copyrighted cassette or, as I have seen it practiced
in Philadelphia, of an entire copyrighted videocassette for sale at a
profit to the pirate.  It is therefore an attempt to make money from some-
one else's work.  No one has attempted to make money from sharing recipes;
I thought we were operating more along the lines of friends in the neigh-
borhood sharing recipes.  Inasmuch as we have erred, then, I think our
error has been one of ignorance of copyright law and a desire to help out
fellow sufferers, not a malicious desire to defraud Bette Hagman, and
certainly not piracy.
 
I hope it is clear from this posting that I respect and welcome the
opinions of TC and SL from the perspective of copyright law.  I also hope
that they will be equally respectful and welcoming of opinions from other
perspectives in this discussion.  The internet is at the moment too complex
, flexible, and novel a matrix to restrict easily within _current_ legal
opinion; as I understand it, we are at several frontiers, all of which are
requiring users as well as legislators and legists to think deeply about
the implications of cyberspace for communication.  Allow me to emphasize
"easily" in the last sentence, and make clear that I am not arguing for
disregard of current law, at all, but to explain why those of who are not
experts in law will be posing challenging -- but not hostile in this case --
questions about the circulation of copyrighted information on the net.  Nor
do I propose that we disregard the notice on copyright in the Welcome Message
for this list.  The recent listowners' message asking that we wait for
authors' response to this whole question seems a very fair resolution, and
I simply hope that we will be able to continue thinking out loud about this
issue, as the group represented by this sort of list, and the sort of
information we share, constitute in themselves a frontier of sorts which
merits discussion.
 
All best wishes, and many thanks also to posters who have been so helpful
with advice on medical issues, shopping, and various ingredients and tech-
niques,
Elizabeth