Janis,
 
> I think that says it all.
 
Shannon could hardly be further away from reality than he believes for real
and I'm amazed at what sort of worthless advice he allegedly paid good
money for.
 
I generate part of my income writing for some magazines and I asked the
exact same questions to the legal department of Kluwer, which is about the
largest scientific publisher around here headquartered in the Netherlands
as well, they are after all also my publisher and they owed me some
service.
 
Dutch law explicitly states, and I quote nearly verbatim, that:
"Intellectual ownership a.k.a. "copyright" of a written
piece for a magazine, even if it is a contracted piece, can never be signed
away, sold or transfered in any way possible. The author retains
intellectual ownership a.k.a. "copyright" for life and after
his/her death it becomes part of his/her estate. Commercial rights (also
distribution rights) can be signed away if there is a pre-arranged, written
and explicit document signed by the author."
 
So if Shannon paid good money for something which says completely
different, then he got suckered out of some money which he worked hard for.
My guess is his legal advisors merely gambled it would never get anywhere
and they just took their chances.
 
> Imagine the annoyance if Shannon had to pay for this service -again-.
 
It takes 2 to tango, it takes at least 2 to argue ... so if everybody just
shuts up over this it will be gone in less than a week.
 
Take care,
 
 \%/{at}rd

--- D'Bridge 2.50