[WEB4LIB] Re: The word "listserv" copyrighted?

[Rich Kulawiec]

On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 08:00:35PM -0700, Nancy Sosna Bohm wrote:
> A certain unnamed, academic library that is currently advertising for a
> position states that "key words" will be searched in the candidates résumé
> and letter. One form of experience for which they will be looking is
> participation in "listservs."

Interesting.  I've sometimes found it necessary to correct people who refer
to all mailing lists as "listservs", by pointing out that mailing lists
existed well before the Listserv software was invented.  The funny part
is that I'm not doing that because of concerns over copyright, but because
I'm concerned about the definition of the term "mailing list". ;-) 

(I usually also mention that listserv, in addition to being closed-source
and therefore not subject to peer review, carries with it much of the
baggage of the defunct BITnet environment and is unsuitable for modern
production use.  Luckily, open-source alternatives such as majordomo
and mailman are available.)

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk at magpage.com