craig@x.UUCP (Craig Lund) (11/14/84)
Many of the better programs distributed through net.sources contain copyright messages. Usually "all rights" are "reserved". Legally, when my machine copies the software, I am breaking the law. I assume that an implicit right is granted to copy and use net.sources software on the machine which I have attached to the network. However, I can only assume that the copyright message forbids providing the programs (at no charge) to my customers. No matter what the author intends, by placing a copyright message in their source code, they are inhibiting further distribution and use of their software package. I would like to request that software posted to net.sources contain no copyright notices. If a copyright notice is necessary, a paragraph describing the distribution rights granted would be greatly appreciated. REPLIES SHOULD BE POSTED ONLY TO NET.LEGAL, NOT NET.SOURCES
fitz@utastro.UUCP (Mike Fitzpatrick) (11/22/84)
What exactly is required to copyright a program (or other
work)? Do I need to send off a form somewhere or just put the
copyright notice on the program? Am I covered legally if I just
grant permission to copy and distribute but don't include a copyright
statement? How much?
Not a lawyer....
--
------------------------------------------------------
Mike Fitzpatrick
{ihnp4,noao,ctvax}!ut-sally!utastro!fitz (USENET)
utastro!fitz@ut-ngp (ARPANET)greenber@acf4.UUCP (11/24/84)
<> Another interesting question (at least to me!) is as follows: In one of the Boston Computer Society User Groups, a "public-domain" disk is distributed to the group as a whole. Part of the disk is usually a number of well written documents that are copyrighted by the author. When I discussed putting the disk contents on a BBS, the User Group president immediately started talking about copyright violation. When you put copyrighted information out into the "public-domain", what rights do you give-up/keeep??? Ross M. Greenberg @ NYU ----> allegra!cmcl2!acf4!greenber <----
eager@amd.UUCP (Mike Eager) (11/28/84)
> > What exactly is required to copyright a program (or other > work)? Do I need to send off a form somewhere or just put the > copyright notice on the program? Am I covered legally if I just > grant permission to copy and distribute but don't include a copyright > statement? How much? > > Not a lawyer.... > I'm not a lawyer either, but I have done a good bit of investigation into software copyright. Basic requirement is that *when published* the work contain a statement of the form Copyright 1984, Michael J. Eager where the name is the name of the owner of the copyright. The current law provides that the author owns copyright from the time of creation. There is no need for any statement. When published, the work may become public domain unless there is a copyright statement. Transmission via net.sources most likely constitutes publication, as does any kind of sale, or distribution of more than a very limited number of copies. The circle-c is used to claim an international copyright. It may be substituted for the word copyright. There seems to be mixed opinion about abbreviations for 'copyright' or 'circle-c'. It appears that 'COPR.' is acceptable for 'copyright'. It is not clear that '(C)' or '(c)' is the same as the circle-c. Abbreviations of the owner's name also seem questionable. But, IBM has the following on their ROMs in the IBM/PC: 'COPR. 198x IBM'. To ENFORCE a copyright infringement claim, the copyright must be filed with the Library of Congress. This is done at nominal cost ($10 I believe). They have some standards of submission for software, including listings and some forms of machine readable source. For large source files, one of the rules is to provide the first and last 25 pages of listing, containing the copy- right notice. This may be done at any time prior to filing a copyright infringement suit. You must file exactly the same work as the work being infringed. This means that if you find that version 1.0 is being copied, and you are currently working on version 5.9, the submission must be of 1.0. If you have gotten to this point, you've talked to your lawyer and now know ALL the details. Trying to protect object code seems to be awkward/unclear/confused. A lot depends on the court. Apple/Franklin upheld the copyright of object code. Datacash did not. -- Mike Eager (amd!eager)
mjc@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Monica Cellio) (12/01/84)
I'm not a lawyer either, but... I think to protect object code you must have the copyright notice in the object code somewhere. This is usually accomplished by having the program print out a copyright notice on startup. -D -- UUCP: ...seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!lll-crg!dragon ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg