msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader) (01/22/88)
> If it does not have a proper copyright notice along the lines of > "Copyright (c) 198x by somebody or something" then it is in the public > domain. Wrong. Mark Brader "I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pedantic and that's just as good." utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com -- D Gary Grady
darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) (01/27/88)
As regards whether a copyright-notice-less work is by default in the
public domain, the 1976 copyright law specifically gives the author 5 years
to properly amend the work and register it. About the only way to be sure
a work is in the public domain is to prove that the author has so released
it or that it was created long enough ago that it could not be copyrighted
any more.
--
Copyright (C) 1987 Darryl Richman INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation
The views expressed above are ...!cca!ima!ism780c!darryl
those of the author. ...!sdcrdcf!gregory@ritcsh.UUCP (Gregory Conway) (01/29/88)
In article <8722@ism780c.UUCP>, darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) writes: > As regards whether a copyright-notice-less work is by default in the > public domain, the 1976 copyright law specifically gives the author 5 years > to properly amend the work and register it. About the only way to be sure > a work is in the public domain is to prove that the author has so released > it or that it was created long enough ago that it could not be copyrighted > any more. All very true. According to the book "Software Protection", by G. Gervaise Davis III, (p. 60) the moment a program is recorded in some permanent form, be it paper, disk, or anything else, it is legally copyrighted. Of course, failure to register the program will limit the authors right to protection. Nonetheless, registered or not, the program is copyrighted. You would be wise to use caution in assuming the work is public domain. -- ==================================================================== Nothing I have said has any bearing on reality. So there. Who wrote that?? ====================================================================
dsill@NSWC-OAS.arpa (Dave Sill) (02/08/88)
In article <798@ritcsh.UUCP> Gregory Conway <ritcsh!gregory> writes: >Nonetheless, registered or not, the program is copyrighted. >You would be wise to use caution in assuming the work is public domain. I believe it safe to assume that a published work without the appropriate copyright notices is in the public domain. Note the distinctions between published versus unpublished, registered versus unregistered, and with versus without copyright notices. For example, let's say I write a program for my own use. It is unregistered, and contains no copyright notices. One day my house is broken into and a copy of the program is stolen. The thief posts my program to a public bulletin board system. The manager of the BBS finds no copyright notices, is unaware of the circumstances under which it was obtained, and distributes it, i.e., publishes it. Is he guilty of violating my copyright? Not knowingly. Even if I had registered the program, it's unlikely the BBS manager would be expected to know it was copyrighted. However, if I had placed the appropriate copyright notices in my program, and the thief had not removed them, the BBS manager would clearly be held accountable. Now let's say that instead of being posted by a thief, I distribute the program myself, unregistered and without copyright notices. Can I, six months later, sue the BBS manager for copyright violation? Heck no. Is the program in the public domain? Yep. ========= The opinions expressed above are mine, and I'm not a lawyer. How much work would a network net if a network could net work?