ljdickey@water.UUCP (12/10/86)
Almost every books I own (hundreds) has some statement about the copyright near the front of the book. There are exceptions. (One says, charmingly, that anyone can copy any part of the book they want to.) There are conventions about where the copyright notice should be and what it should look like. I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United States an author who circulates his book without proper copyright notice no longer has any claim to copyright. Now, I have a copy of something called "BREAKOUT.ACC". As far as I can see, in the copy that I have, there is no copyright notice. Without that notice, should I feel an obligation not to copy it? I think not. I would guess that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost their legal claim to any protection that copyright might imply under US copyright law. Of course, they might still have the source code, and could modify it in ways that enhance its value, and perhaps could establish some claim to copyright on the modified code.
ljdickey@water.UUCP (12/10/86)
Almost every book I own has some statement about copyright near the front of the book. (There are curious anomalies: one says, charmingly, that anyone can copy any part of the book they want to.) There are conventions about where the copyright notice should be and what it should look like. I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United States an author who circulates his book without proper copyright notice no longer has any claim to copyright. Now, regarding "BREAKOUT.ACC", as far as I can see, in the copy that I have, there is no copyright notice. Without that notice, should I feel an obligation not to copy it? I think not. I think that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost whatever legal claim they had to any protection that copyright might imply under US law. Of course, they might still have the source code, and could modify it in ways that enhance its value, and perhaps could still make some claim on the modified code.
neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) (12/12/86)
In article <675@water.UUCP>, ljdickey@water.UUCP (Lee Dickey) writes: > Almost every book I own has some statement about copyright near the > front of the book. > > I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United > States an author who circulates his book without proper copyright > notice no longer has any claim to copyright. > > Now, regarding "BREAKOUT.ACC", as far as I can see, in the copy that I > have, there is no copyright notice. Without that notice, should I feel > an obligation not to copy it? I think not. > > I think that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost whatever legal > claim they had to any protection that copyright might imply under US > law. Once again, a posting from someone speculating on US Copyright Law. This set of laws changed sometime within the past ten years to afford much more protection to the originators of a work. Specifically, a work retains copyright even without an explicit notice. The notice and subsequent registration permits the copyright holder to sue for damages. Without this, a copyright holder can still prohibit others from distributing the work. These days, for a work to go into the public domain it needs to be explicitely placed there. The benefit of the doubt goes in favor of the copyright holder. Other changes in the law include a substantial lengthening of the time period for copyright protection. Please, people, before making any rash assumptions about the law, read one of the many books available on the subject. PS: The issue at hand is not specifically any one program, simply the wealth of misinformation on the topic of copyright laws which are widely misunderstood. -- --->Neil @ Atari ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 US Mail: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 "Loose chips sink ships."
tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith) (12/12/86)
In article <674@water.UUCP> ljdickey@water.UUCP (Lee Dickey) writes: > >I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United States >an author who circulates his book without proper copyright notice no longer >has any claim to copyright. > Nope. I don't remember the exact details, but if you distribute your work without a copyright notice, but you didn't mean to put the work in the public domain, you may correct the mistake by registering a copyright before N years pass, where N is something like 3 or 5. You can get more information at your library in any good encyclopedia under "Copyright". -- emordnilapregnolanalpanama Tim Smith USENET: sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim Compuserve: 72257,3706 Delphi or GEnie: mnementh
fouts@orville (Marty Fouts) (12/12/86)
In article <486@atari.UUcp> neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) writes: >Please, people, before making any rash assumptions about the law, read one >of the many books available on the subject. Which book Neil? ;-) Actually, the problem isn't quite that simply solved. The recent copyright laws, as well as changes to the patent system and other side effects of various legislative attempts to address the issues of copyright, patent, and trade secret with respect to the computer industry, have -- if anything -- made the situation more difficult to understand. Most of the current copyright law is under examination in one court or another, and if you read enough of the books, you will find that the experts don't readily agree on what it means, where it applies, or how it should be interpretted. The entire issue of intellectual property is complex and in a state of flux and recently, by the time a book has reached print, it has become out of date. (BTW who owns the Amiga blitter chip :-)
ralph@ee.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) (12/14/86)
In article <674@water.UUCP> ljdickey@water.UUCP (Lee Dickey) writes: > >Now, I have a copy of something called "BREAKOUT.ACC". As far as I can see, >in the copy that I have, there is no copyright notice. Without that notice, >should I feel an obligation not to copy it? I think not. > >I would guess that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost their legal >claim to any protection that copyright might imply under US copyright law. Can I just ask, "Are you all talking about the same BREAKOUT.ACC ??" I mean, if I was to write an accessory to play BREAKOUT, and posted it to the world without any copyright/PD notice in it, would it cause the same amount of trouble ?? -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ralph Mitchell | VOICE: +44 895 74000 Ext 2561 Computer Centre | ARPA: ralph%ee.brunel.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa Brunel University | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!ee.brunel.ac.uk!ralph Uxbridge | JANET: ralph@uk.ac.brunel.ee UB8 3PH | UNITED KINGDOM | "Noli illegitemi carborundum" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=