cy03+@andrew.cmu.edu (Chao-Ping Yang) (05/12/88)
Could somebody tell me about the procedure in obtaining a copyright for a program that I have written? I am thinking about distributing it but I would like to copyright it first. It is a graphic program for MS-DOS and I have spent the last three years working on it while working on my PhD. It is a plotting, drawing, editing, ... program. Menu driven, and produce *Full feature* PostScript output, including things like curveto, if you know what that means. Thanks in advance. ==Chaoping
bkliewer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Bradley Dyck Kliewer) (05/13/88)
In article <sWWQEny00XoCI6A0Y2@andrew.cmu.edu> cy03+@andrew.cmu.edu (Chao-Ping Yang) writes: >Could somebody tell me about the procedure in obtaining a copyright The important thing is to place a copyright notice in the program (and on the disk) with the year of publication (not year of creation). Registration is fairly easy (although not strictly necessary). If you register within 30 days of publication, you can recover your costs for a lawsuit, otherwise you can only recover damages. With that exception, you only need to register if you sue somebody. You might want to buy the book Legal Care for Your Software byt Daniel Remer. In addition to copyright info, he covers trademarks, trade secrets, and includes sample contracts for beta test sites, disclosure agreements, etc. To get copyright Form TX, write: Copyright Office; Library of Congress; Washington, DC 20559 (the one annoying omission from the book is this address)! Bradley Dyck Kliewer Hacking... bkliewer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu It's not just an adventure It's my job! Author: EGA/VGA A Programmer's Reference Guide
cga66@ihlpa.ATT.COM (Kauffold) (05/20/88)
In article <sWWQEny00XoCI6A0Y2@andrew.cmu.edu>, cy03+@andrew.cmu.edu (Chao-Ping Yang) writes: > Could somebody tell me about the procedure in obtaining a copyright > for a program that I have written? I am thinking about distributing > it but I would like to copyright it first. Basically, you must include the copyright notice in the source code, of the form Copyright (c) 1988 by C-P Yang. All rights reserved. It then becomes an "unpublished work", and is afforded some protection as such. You might also want to include a "trade secret" notice which says, generally, that you place a value on your software and don't want anyone to think otherwise. There are a lot of things you have to do to be afforded legal protection, like keeping software locked up, never alowing it to be released into the "public domain", and generally being paranoid. You will get to know lawyers. It is a good idea to make sure your copyright notice appears on every page of listings which you may produce, and on pages of documentation, user's manuals, etc. To "perfect" your copyright, you must send your work (or portions thereof) to the copyright office (or Library of Congress), with a 2 or 3-page form. I think there is a small fee. Opinions vary about the effectiveness of copyrights and trade secrets in protecting you from rip-off. Copyright protection is kind of weak; trade secret laws (like the UCC) may be better in some cases. Of course, you can try for a patent, but that takes $$$ and time. Since I am NOT a lawyer, this advice is free (otherwise, you would not get it!). Please take it for what it is worth. Pat Kauffold, !Esq.