GBMbooks@aol.com wrote:
> None of this is "commerce" in the sense that violates any academic
> institution's rules regarding usage of the <.edu>.
I am not a book dealer and have no particular axe to grind, but this
seems to me to get to the crux of the matter. There has not to date
been any traffic on exlibris that could reasonably said to be
"commercial" by any normal definition of that word. Merely giving
factual information about what is available in the way of websites,
booksellers catalogues, etc., is simply providing information and only
under certain circumstances is it engaging in commerce. If either the
server or the moderator wishes to interpret "commercial" in some unusual
and restrictive manner, at the least they need closely to define what
they consider constitutes commercial. They also need to consider
whether such a restrictive definition might constitute an attack on
academic freedom or free speech and whether this is or is not ethical.
If, as I suspect, the server rather than the moderator is the reason
there is to be a strangely restrictive definition of commercial in use
on the list, it would I think be the duty of a responsible moderator to
canvass listmembers as to whether they would prefer to accept the
restrictive guidelines or to change servers.
John Speller