From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Re" Phone Numbers
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 20:39:44 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 8:23 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Re" Phone Numbers

[...]
>
> For instance, in the above the term "legal threats" is referring to prior
> posts on this thread that I made where I described potential scenarios
that
> would result in WSFA being sued for publishing this data without
> permission, and where I brought up the potential for violations of the
law
> being involved, but as I said at the time, I'm not certain about the law
> bit and will leave it to those who work with the law to confirm or deny.
> It's very clear that Lexus-Nexus is concerned about the idenity theft
> aspects of their unintended disclosure of personal information and the
> lawsuits that could result from this, as is Congress.  Why WSFA should be
> so blase about doing something similar, on purpose, I don't quite
understand.

I think you're stretching any parallel between Lexus-Nexus and WSFA past
the breaking point.   The WSFA JOURNAL never contained "personal
information" on the level of Lexus-Nexus:  no Social Security numbers, for
example.  And the addresses and phone numbers are unlikely to be current or
usable.

Further on in your post (not quoted) you refer to the circulation of Don
Miller's 30-years-old WSFA JOURNALs as "very limited" and you seem to think
they were then circulated as they are now (sans the web).  In this you are
wrong.  Miller's WJ was widely circulated as a fanzine, widely reviewed in
other fanzines, and had an actual circulation of perhaps five to ten times
its print-run, which was in the low hundreds (somewhere between 200 and
500, I'm guessing).  Miller sent copies all over the world.

--Ted White