ccastje@pyr.gatech.EDU (John Adair) (10/03/89)
Does anyone know the method for copyrighting software? Is each revision
a seperate copyright?
Also, does anyone have the address for the Association of Shareware
Professionals (I think) ?
John Adair
Georgia Institute of Technology, Box 30812, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!ccastje
ARPA: ccastje%prism@gatech.edumadd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) (10/04/89)
In article <9263@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccastje@pyr.gatech.EDU (John Adair) writes: |Does anyone know the method for copyrighting software? Is each revision |a seperate copyright? Merely by sticking the message: Copyright 1989 Yourname on the program, it is copyrighted. You earn treble damages if you register the copyright (using Form TX, obtainable from the Library of Congress but I don't have the address handy). Registration costs $10. Subsequent versions of software should be re-copyrighted to guarantee protection, but there are some weirdnesses covering derived works which may actually give you some coverage. I'd copyright each revision specifically if I were worried about it. A couple of caveats: (c) is not equivalent to c-in-a-circle; if you can't reproduce c-in-a-circle, you *must* use the word "copyright" or the notice is invalid. Thus: "(c) 1989 Yourname" is invalid "Copyright 1989 Yourname" is valid. "Copyright (c) 1989 Yourname" is valid. I usually use the latter although the (c) is meaningless. Another common thing to do is "Copyright 1989 by Yourname" which is also valid, although I'd limit the number of extraneous symbols or words that I put in my notice. Happy hacking, jim frost madd@std.com
swh@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Steve Harrold) (10/04/89)
Re: Copyrighting software In addition to the "Copyright 19xx yourname" announcement, you should add the phrase "All rights reserved" to get protection under the laws in many South American countries.
spatel@hpcll21.HP.COM (10/11/89)
I suggest that you take a look at book called 'Legal care for your software'. I have forgotten tha author's name, but I know that he's a lawyer who specializes in software copywriting. Good Luck. Shailesh.
terrell@cadnetix.COM (Eric Terrell) (10/12/89)
In article <620017@hpcll21.HP.COM> spatel@hpcll21.HP.COM writes: >I suggest that you take a look at book called 'Legal care for your software'. I >have forgotten tha author's name, but I know that he's a lawyer who specializes >in software copywriting. > >Good Luck. > >Shailesh. Reemer & Elias, "Legal Care for your Software", Nolo Press Terrell