Kelly..Thank you.
Sometime, I hope to talk with you, in real time.

I love lawyers!!!!!!!!!!

hmm...so if i come up with a new idea for this or that, they can use it for personal gain?...i dont know...might be looking elsewhere for a garden ideas soon..

It does kind of grate on your sensibilities, doesn't it?

That's why I always hide any little worthwhile thing I might have to say inside a glop of organic irreverence to throw them off.

iVillage, you've stirred this particular worm bin the wrong way, I fear.

someone posing as Chuckiebtoo

Its more than annoying, its damaging.

Years ago, our local newspaper had a decent roster of local people who would submit columns and articles. Our "mini-celebs" were small time published authors in fields like birdwatching, cooking and local history. It was a great stable of local talent.

Then the parent company (Gannett) came up with their new policy. If we publish it, its ours. We can do anything we want with the material.

Imagine that you're a cookbook author who also submits a weekly column to the local paper. Now the paper asserts the claim that they can take your recipes, and make their own cookbook with your name on it to compete with your own cookbooks! What person would agree to let a bohemoth like Gannett go into competition against you using your own materials?

Some agreed to the new terms, others didn't. Our town was worse off for the new policy. Ivillage's new terms sound similarly short sighted...

I think you may be over-reacting.
I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that discussion forums like these are really part of the public domain. Anyone can use the information posted here royalty free, not just iVilliage.

For example, Kelly, I believe you once posted a worm bin design (forgive any foggy memory here) - it featured packing peanuts in the bottom with a landscape fabric covered hardware cloth to support the bedding.
That post was not copyrighted and became part of the public domain. Anyone could reproduce that document and/or use it to make a bin, and unless you have a patent, anyone could use that design to produce a commercial product.

This reminds me of confidentiality agreements that many companies require employee's to sign. It's intent is to prevent an Employee from leaving the company with any company secrets that may be divulged to any new employer. Guess what? The courts have never enforced a single one of these because it attempts to prevent a person from earning a living - they basically aren't worth the paper they're printed on. This is really funny when you think about it. The company feels good because they think they're protecting their interests, the lawyers feel good because they made a boat load of money developing the legal agreement...employee's wonder or worry that they may not be able to get work for a competitor - and in the end, it doesn't hold up and is meaningless in the eyes of the court.

Now I don't know what rights you or I have in the eyes of the legal system regarding the ideas we share here. I do believe that the host of this forum has no more rights to the content than do anyone else who reads it. In fact, since the host assumes no responsibility for content, I believe a judge would laugh that they assume some ownership of it. Wouldn't you think that if you presume to own the content for gain, you must also own the content for liability?

Let's here from the resident lawyers.

I meant lets 'HEAR' from the resident lawyers.

I am not A lAWYER... but I do know a worm has 5 hearts and not a leg to stand on.

That's funny!!!! I've always thought of lawyers as worms. I guess since worms have five hearts and most lawyers have none it's unfair to the worms to make that comparison! I'm joking, no offense to any lawyers!

Would it help to wear a tinfoil hat?

Ever since the new policy was posted it seems things have taken a downward spiral on Garden Web -- and I can't shake the feeling that "big brother" is looking over my shoulder as I type this -- but it's nice to see that others can post a message that actually makes me laugh!

Yes, "Big Brother" is watching the WormBin!! And YES, Home Land Security IS watching your posts!! Just what ARE you doing with all those worms?? What's your plan?? Maybe training the Vermi's to loosen the soil under the Capital, "Topple The Government"??? Or maybe the Lobbists for the TopSoil producers will try to pass laws to shut us down!! We must band together, maybe march.... er crawl on Washington!!! Today it's our VermiForum, soon our e-mails, or our cell phone records, Where will it stop!!!

LOL

It already IS our e-mails, and cell phones, and land lines, and magazine subscriptions, and favorite green bean cassarole recipes, and voting histories, and.....

Any item of personal information, however insignificant, on anyone is now a possible matter of national security because, after all, any one of us could be, or could know, or could know of, a person who might be, or knows, of knows of, or could possibly, at some time in the future become, a terrorist...or patriot...or, God forbid, democrat.

Oh, and that soil under the Capitol...there is none. Only concrete bunkers.

someone posing as Chuckiebtoo

Chuckiebtoo you are wrong!

The Capitol is presently standing on a pile of crap, and I BET all our worms combined -- could do a number on it. Shall we let them loose?

mickey2

Mickey, I beg to differ; crap is productive. When was the last time you saw something productive come out of Washington DC?

KellyS ::fully expecting to be banned from GW any moment for posting something of a political nature::

If by productive, you mean "having the quality or power of producing esp. in abundance": or "effective in bringing about": or "originitive": or, my favorite, and most appropriate, "raising mucus or sputum (as from the bronchi)(a cough or gag)":, then the absolute most productive things ever to come out of Washington are political corruption and deficits, and both make me want to throw up...both my hands and lunch.

Chuckiebtoo

Anybody know where the vermicomposting forum went...all I can seem to find id this new 'rebel without a cause' site...and who's that cute biker chick named Kelly?

LOL

Howdy, didn't know about the changes until I read about them on a Yahoo group that has to do with tomatoes. Now I see folks protesting on GW Garden Junk about photos, and OPTING OUT of junk emails, popups, etc.

I'm fairly new to this wormie forum...BUT has anyone done the following:

= Determine backup place to meet online?
I currently belong to Yahoo the_worm_bin. The moderator just made an appearance...didn't even know who he/she was. Perhaps start a new Y group with several mods and system for backing up posted information/files.

= Has anyone saved any of the postings here? There's so much valuable information. Perhaps the task could be divided up?

Just preparing for the worse. This whole setting going bye-bye or costing $$$.

Susan H.

For the past ten days, I've watched the consequences of Kelly's informational courtesy to us regarding iVillage's pompous little ill-advised power play. As any half-way sane entity should have known, most of us have disengaged ourselves, for the most part, from using the site since. Under the perceived threat of banishment for whatever, we have chosen exile.

We're wrong.

We should continue our little conversations as before and if "the man" wants to send any of us to forum purgatory, well, ain't that a shame! I ain't giving up my seat in the front of the bus unless I'm not able to log on anymore.

If we let this happen to us, just think what's next. Hell, we may not be able to Google anything anymore.

I want you to get up. I want you to get up and walk to your window and open your window and yell, as loud as you can, I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I AIN'T GONNA TAKE IT NO MORE!. I WANT YOU ALL TO GET ON-LINE AND LOG ON AND GET ON THIS FORUM AND TELL US WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR WORMS! I WANT YOU TO TELL A NEWBIE WHY HIS WORMS HAVEN'T EATEN THAT PEPPERONI PIZZA YET!

Come back!!

...OK, I feel better...now, does anyone want to ask me about crispy-worm resuscitation?

Chuckiebtoo

chuckiebtoo..I never left. I may not fully understand the repercussions....(okay..not at all), of my observations about BSF's, pot worms, white slime mold, aliens in compost, coffee grounds being acidic, can you compost dog poop, being someone else's "property". Maybe they will make it into a feature film, and I won't get royalties.. I would only ask to have someone really cool play me...hhmm....who would it be? (Deep thoughts for a slow Saturday night)

Am I missing something?? Can't anyone who views this site, with a minimal amount of computer savy, copy n paste, pull pictures, bookmark, e-mail around, forward to, or otherwise STEAL anything we say here?? Anyone could have been doing this all along!! Didn't you know that?

Aren't any of us doing just that?? I've been surfing the web and copying pages all over, getting information on any number of topics, for free!! While I'm not doing it for profit, I'm sure there are those that are.

Are we mad we're not getting paid to post here?? Do you think anyone is getting paid for your postings??

Seems to me if you think what you have to say is so informative that somebody will steal it and make a cool million, then you should write a book!! Then the money will be all your's!!

Just seems we're getting crazy for being told what's been going on all along anyway!!

I can agree w/ ya nifty - if folks don't want to put their info on the net for the unfettered use of anyone that runs across it, they shouldn't, but I see nothing new in iVillage's terms and see no real change in the way GW is working now, other than the adverts, which can be dealt w/ if you use the right browser - I really find it hard to imagine iVillage has anyone collecting posts and pictures here to publish a 'garden web compendium' for huge profits

Bill