popkin@osric.cs.odu.edu (Brian N. Popkin) (05/08/91)
I have currently written a turbo pascal v6.0 program that I want to copyright.. how should I go about this??? also is there any problems with this, becuase I used some turbo units and functions, like dos, crt that are already copyrighted in my program?? Thank, Brian *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Brian Popkin - Computer Science Major - Systems Programing * * Old Dominion University - Norfolk, Virginia USA * * * * Others Areas Of Interest: Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, * * Networks, And Telecommunications * * * * Email Address: popkin@cs.odu.ede - popkin@xanth.cs.odu.edu * *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) (05/10/91)
In article <1991May8.150708.29420@cs.odu.edu> popkin@osric.cs.odu.edu (Brian N. Popkin) writes: > >I have currently written a turbo pascal v6.0 program that I want to >copyright.. how should I go about this??? > >also is there any problems with this, becuase I used some turbo units >and functions, like dos, crt that are already copyrighted in my program?? > First of all, if you properly include a copyright notice in your program you should know that it is already considered copyrighted in the common law copyright sense. This means that you have, as of the date of your copyright and publication (i.e., printing or display), declared the code to be your property from that day forward. However, as of the copyright law of 1976 (and its subsequent revisions), common law copyright no longer has much use in enforcing your rights. In order to enforce a copyright (i.e., win damages in a lawsuit for an infringement), you must REGISTER the copyright. This, as it happens, is a relatively trivial process, however. You must get a hold of a U.S. Copyright form (contact the Federal Gov't information office in your area or call the Office of U.S. Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights in Washington DC), fill it out, mail it in with the appropriate amount of dollars (I think somewhere between $50 and $100 these days) along with a copy of your program. Whoa, just a minute there, pardnuh... I don't want anyone else to see my code (I hear you cry... :-) Of course not. However, remember that copyright is protection of PUBLISHED information so you must publish something in order to copyright it. This issue was brought to the attention of the Copyright folks years ago and they came up with an interesting solution. All you have to do to copyright a software program is include some pages (I believe 5 from the front and 5 from the back) of the listing of the program. Of course, what you do here is make sure that the first five and last five pages are mostly irrelevent comments and maybe declarations of variables so that the important parts of your program are not visible. In addition, if you program has any important visual information such as screen displays, reports, etc., that you want protected as part of the "look" of the program, you need to send photos or printouts of those too. Ultimately, once you have registered your copyright, you are fully protected from any subsequent infringement as well as any prior infringement dating back to the date of the common law copyright, but you can only collect damages that are measurable from the date of registration. This is important to understand if you want to enforce your copyright. The fact that your registration is late does NOT keep you from filing a lawsuit, but you can only collect money from the portion of the infringement that occurs after the actual registration is completed. If the infringer stops selling the copy of your program prior to when you register, you may get a verdict in your favor but you will get $zip in damages. So register early if you really think there is a need. If not, just rely on the common law copyright until you detect a possible infringement. Then register and collect from that day forth. Also, one more point in this long soliloquy... Enforcing your copyright ain't easy... If the copier is doing a "real" copy, i.e., just taking your disk and physically duplicating it, you shouldn't have to bad a time. However, if you want to try an enforce "look and feel" copying, as we all know from watching the big guys like Microsoft and Apple wallow in the muck (as well as Ashton-Tate and FoxBase), its pretty mucky down there. Get a good lawyer and have a lot of money. As for problems with incorporating other code that is already copyrighted, there should be no problem if the license for that code permits its incorporation within other code. I am positive that Borland's license does this. (Pause...) In fact I just pulled out a copy of my Turbo C (this is an older version from about 2 years ago but I doubt it has been changed very much) and it says: "...Programs that you write and compile using the Turbo C language compiler may be used, given away or sold without additional license or fees. You are not required to indicate that your programs were developed using Turbo C or that they contain source code provided with Borland language products (toolkits)." It goes on to EXCLUDE the use of the sample programs (like MicroCalc) that are provided as educational examples of what you can do with Turbo products, but permits you to use misc. routines that are found in the exmamples "...as long as your resulting programs do not substantially duplicate all or part of a sample program in appearance or functionality." This is interesting since if you built a spreadsheet product from Turbo C or Pascal that you wrote yourself (not copying MicroCalc), you might have a problem here, but I doubt it. All in all, this means that object code may be distributed without concern for Borland's copyright (and I believe that the code would be copyrightable in total)... You can NOT distribute and copyright for yourself any of their SOURCE code (for instance if you acquire rights to their Turbo C run-time or one of the toolkits like the Editor or Database toolbox). Good luck! Jon Rosen
dahosek@biivax.dp.beckman.com (05/11/91)
In article <24272@dice.la.locus.com>, jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) writes: > In article <1991May8.150708.29420@cs.odu.edu> popkin@osric.cs.odu.edu (Brian N. Popkin) writes: >>I have currently written a turbo pascal v6.0 program that I want to >>copyright.. how should I go about this??? >>also is there any problems with this, becuase I used some turbo units >>and functions, like dos, crt that are already copyrighted in my program?? > First of all, if you properly include a copyright notice in your program > you should know that it is already considered copyrighted in the common > law copyright sense. This means that you have, as of the date of your > copyright and publication (i.e., printing or display), declared the code > to be your property from that day forward. Actually under the most recent Geneva copyright convention, the notice isn't actually required. However, for maximum international protection, the notice Copyright <year> <copyright-holder> should appear. (c) has no legal status and circled-C is only valid in those countries which also subscribe to the abovementioned copyright convention. > However, as of the copyright law of 1976 (and its subsequent revisions), > common law copyright no longer has much use in enforcing your rights. > In order to enforce a copyright (i.e., win damages in a lawsuit for an > infringement), you must REGISTER the copyright. This, as it happens, > is a relatively trivial process, however. You must get a hold of a > U.S. Copyright form (contact the Federal Gov't information office in > your area or call the Office of U.S. Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights > in Washington DC), fill it out, mail it in with the appropriate amount > of dollars (I think somewhere between $50 and $100 these days) along > with a copy of your program. Bzzt. Almost right. Registration of the copyright is ONLY necessary to file a suit. Furthermore, the registration may take place AFTER the infringement, but before the suit is filed. i.e., if Mr. Rosen were to start selling copies of this note (just because it doesn't carry a notice doesn't mean that it's not copyrighted) that I'm writing, I could register it tomorrow and file a case against him after the registration is completed. Note, however, that US courts do not allow punitive damages in copyright infringement cases, only actual damages, so I would have to demonstrate that he actually caused me to lose money by such a publication of this note to collect any money. At best, I could keep him from further publication. Also, putting a copyright notice in a prominent place on the work will help your case should you feel the need to litigate since the defendent would not be able to claim ignorance of the copyright. For those of you looking for legal backing of this, the case _Salinger vs. Random House_ involved many of these points. The documents in question, incidentally, were publicly available nonpublished letters in the collections of a University library. Incidentally, the license agreement that I have on my relatively new Borland software has as a condition that any software written using their compilers and distributed bear a copyright notice, so inclusion of a copyright notice in the case of, say a Turbo Pascal program, is more a matter of fulfilling the Borland license than anything involving copyright law. -dh -- Don Hosek // Quixote Digital Typography 714-625-0147 dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu On contract to Beckman Instruments 714-961-4562 dahosek@beckman.com
rice@willow23.cray.com (Jonathan Rice) (05/11/91)
Mr. Rosen answered this query quite well. I'll offer a few small corrections and additions to his article. In article <24272@dice.la.locus.com> jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) writes: >In article <1991May8.150708.29420@cs.odu.edu> popkin@osric.cs.odu.edu (Brian N. Popkin) writes: >> >>I have currently written a turbo pascal v6.0 program that I want to >>copyright.. how should I go about this??? >In order to enforce a copyright (i.e., win damages in a lawsuit for an >infringement), you must REGISTER the copyright. Without registration you may still sue for actual damages. You must register to sue for "statutory damages" or to have the infringer pay your court costs (assuming you win). Statutory damages will often far exceed your actual damages (e.g. lost sales). >...call the Office of U.S. Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights >in Washington DC), Patents & Trademarks is one office; Copyrights is another. United States Copyright Office Library of Congress Washington D.C. You need form "TX." >[Don't want anyone to see code?] > However, remember that copyright is protection of >PUBLISHED information so you must publish something in order to >copyright it. >... All you have to do to copyright a software program is >include some pages (I believe 5 from the front and 5 from the >back) of the listing of the program. Of course, what you do here >is make sure that the first five and last five pages are mostly >irrelevent comments... First 25 and last 25 pages. There's another strategy here that can be quite successful. Copyright the object code (yes, send in 50 pages of hex). This requires you to file for the copyright under the "Rule of Doubt." This sounds scary, but all it means is that the Copyright examiner can't look at 50 pages of hex and say "aha, it is obvious to me that this is a work of original authorship qualifying under the copyright law." Some extra paperwork, but not hard. Protect the source code as a Trade Secret. If you are not a corporation, just don't show it to anyone. >In addition, if you program has any important visual information >such as screen displays, reports, etc., that you want protected >as part of the "look" of the program, you need to send photos >or printouts of those too. Very rarely applicable -- form TX covers almost all software. If you have a program with a highly visual content, particularly if it's animated (e.g. a video game) then you *might* have a stab at filing form PA with a videotape. I wouldn't touch this, myself. -- Jonathan C. Rice | Internet: rice@cray.com | UUCP: uunet!cray!rice
hoffmann@infopls.chi.il.us (Robert Hoffmann) (05/11/91)
popkin@osric.cs.odu.edu (Brian N. Popkin) writes: > I have currently written a turbo pascal v6.0 program that I want to > copyright.. how should I go about this??? > > also is there any problems with this, becuase I used some turbo units > and functions, like dos, crt that are already copyrighted in my program?? Copyrighting a program is simple (enforcing it... that's another story). Just insert in your source and output a line stating: Copyright 1991 Brian N. Popkin (for example) And, in your source and output, to establish Borland's copyrights to the TP units, include this one: Some portions Copyright 1983, 1991 Borland International (exact text is in the Borland No-nonsense License Agreement) Rob -------------------------- hoffmann@infopls.chi.il.us
Patrick_Devine@resbbs.UUCP (Patrick Devine) (05/13/91)
Actually, to truely copyright something, atleast in Canada, it has to have a Government stamp on it. An easy way to do this is seal a hard copy of the program in a manilla envelope and mail it to yourself. This way, it has a postage stamp/seal on it and is considered copywritten until a time as to when you open the envelope. Remember to enclose a line in the program stating the copywrite date. -- Via DLG Pro v.95 Beta ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Patrick_devine@resbbs.uucp ] My oppinion is not your oppinion, because [ vancouver_bc ] it's mine, and I thought of it first. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------