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Jeanne R. Ra
#1 / 13
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 COPYRIGHT Questions Hi, Jeff Rapp here. I was woundering, how do you get a
copyright on a program! Do you have to go thru some gov. thing or just
put (c)1997 Man on the Moon Software??
Desperate In Nebraska
Jeff Rapp
(SIGN HERE)
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| Sun, 18 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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James C. Full
#2 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote: > Hi, Jeff Rapp here. I was woundering, how do you get a
>copyright on a program! Do you have to go thru some gov. thing or just
>put (c)1997 Man on the Moon Software??
> Desperate In Nebraska
> Jeff Rapp
> (SIGN HERE)
Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the score to myself. James
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| Fri, 23 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Dermot Frie
#3 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions Quote: > Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the
> score to myself.
> James
What legal rights does copyrighting a program of yours actually give you? If someone were to change it in some minor detail, could they circumvent copyright? Dermot
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| Fri, 23 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Marc van den Dikkenbe
#4 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote: >Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the
>score to myself.
Which, unlike popular believe, will serve you no purpose... Marc van den Dikkenberg
-----------------------------o---------------------
http://145.89.78.151/~excel | Programming Archives
http://www.xs4all.nl/~excel | antU, Humour, Sci-Fi
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| Fri, 23 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Jesse Dorla
#5 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote:
>> Hi, Jeff Rapp here. I was woundering, how do you get a
>>copyright on a program! Do you have to go thru some gov. thing or just
>>put (c)1997 Man on the Moon Software??
>> Desperate In Nebraska
>> Jeff Rapp
>> (SIGN HERE)
>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the
>score to myself.
Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to mention that in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-) -Jesse
Quote: > James
==================================== Very funny Scotty! Now beam down my clothes! ====================================
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| Sat, 24 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Marc van den Dikkenbe
#6 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote:
>>> Hi, Jeff Rapp here. I was woundering, how do you get a
>>>copyright on a program! Do you have to go thru some gov. thing or just
>>>put (c)1997 Man on the Moon Software??
>>> Desperate In Nebraska
>>> Jeff Rapp
>>> (SIGN HERE)
>>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the
>>score to myself.
>Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to mention that
>in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-)
And who's going to prove that you didn't send an open, empty envelope to yourself, just in case something interesting comes along some day? Marc van den Dikkenberg
-----------------------------o---------------------
http://145.89.78.151/~excel | Programming Archives
http://www.xs4all.nl/~excel | antU, Humour, Sci-Fi
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| Sat, 24 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Joseph Co
#7 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions Quote: >>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the >>score to myself. >Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to
mention that
>in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-)
Even better, in this kind of case, is to fold the document as if it was to be put in the envelope, staple the page(s) closed, and write all the info that would go on the envelope on the back of the documents. The registration and postmark will be on the very document itself.
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| Sun, 25 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Michael Martin
#8 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions Quote:
>>> Hi, Jeff Rapp here. I was woundering, how do you get a
>>>copyright on a program! Do you have to go thru some gov. thing or just
>>>put (c)1997 Man on the Moon Software??
[snip] Quote: >>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the >>score to myself. >Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to mention that
>in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-)
This method is not necessary and has no legal standing. Software is copyrighted as soon as you write it. Normally you only need to
put a copyright notice somewhere in an obvious "header" position to ensure
that you've protected your rights.
Registration with the US Copyright office gives you access to punitive damages
should you ever take anyone to court.
Maintaining a good archive of your source code is about all you'll need to
prove its written by you. Most commercial software firms don't go to any
great expense to "prove" they own code. The fact it's archived by them is
generally good enough for the courts.
There is a FAQ on copyright myths that you should be able to find in
news.answers. It doesn't tell you everything you need to know, but it's a
good starting point for finding out what you don't need to know (or believe)
about copyrights.
Courtesy copy sent via email to original poster.
++ ++ "Well Samwise: What do you think of the elves now?"
++ ++------------------------------------------------------
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| Sun, 25 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Peter Coope
#9 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote: >The letter c in parentheses (c) is NOT a legal copyright symbol. The only two >legal symbols are: >1. The word Copyright
>2. The letter c enclosed by a full circle: ?
>Any other designation does not constitute a valid copyright.
I believe that under the Berne Convention (or whatever its called) the word Copyright is not strictly correct. As far as I remember it can only be a C in a circle. There are some legal complications over (c) and the word Copyright. Maybe a lawyer could post some sort of idea here?
Cheers,
--
Peter Cooper
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| Sun, 25 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Jesse Dorla
#10 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions Quote:
>>The letter c in parentheses (c) is NOT a legal copyright symbol. The only two >>legal symbols are: >>1. The word Copyright
>>2. The letter c enclosed by a full circle: ?
>>Any other designation does not constitute a valid copyright.
>I believe that under the Berne Convention (or whatever its called) the
>word Copyright is not strictly correct. As far as I remember it can only
>be a C in a circle. There are some legal complications over (c) and the
>word Copyright.
>Maybe a lawyer could post some sort of idea here?
No, I think the word is correct. I seem to recall reading a document on the Copyright Office's web page that gives an example of a valid copyright notice, and it was spelled out. What is someone to do if they are writing a text mode application? They could
change one of the characters, but not everyone knows how to do that. If
"Copyright" is invalid, then almost every software company must be overlooking
it, because you see it almost everywhere.
-Jesse
Quote: >Cheers,
>--
>Peter Cooper
==================================== Very funny Scotty! Now beam down my clothes! ====================================
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| Mon, 26 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Peter Coope
#11 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
Quote: >>>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the >>>score to myself. >>Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to mention that
>>in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-)
>And who's going to prove that you didn't send an open, empty envelope to
>yourself, just in case something interesting comes along some day?
I think it is all to do with the country that you are in. The copyright may stand in the UK but not in the Netherlands, or it may stand in India but not in China.. International copyright is under the Berne Convention I believe. Cheers,
--
Peter Cooper
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| Mon, 26 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Michael Martin
#12 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions Quote:
>>>The letter c in parentheses (c) is NOT a legal copyright symbol. The only
>>>two legal symbols are:
>>>1. The word Copyright
>>>2. The letter c enclosed by a full circle: ?
>>>Any other designation does not constitute a valid copyright.
This is correct for print media, but in computer source code it's still impossible to use special symbols on the majority of systems (and compilers and interpreters don't recognize them anyway). It's legal to use the form Copryight (c) 1997 Michael Martinez. All Rights
Reserved. in computere source code. Commercial application vendors have been
doing this for years and they haven't lost their rights yet.
++ ++ "Well Samwise: What do you think of the elves now?"
++ ++------------------------------------------------------
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| Tue, 27 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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Christopher Hu
#13 / 13
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COPYRIGHT Questions
says...
Quote:
>>>>Years ago when I was writing music, I would send a registered letter of the
>>>>score to myself.
>>>Yes, that's a good way to prove you're the author. I forgot to mention that
>>>in my reply. Just remember. DON'T OPEN IT!! :-)
>>And who's going to prove that you didn't send an open, empty envelope to
>>yourself, just in case something interesting comes along some day?
>I think it is all to do with the country that you are in. The copyright
>may stand in the UK but not in the Netherlands, or it may stand in India
>but not in China.. International copyright is under the Berne Convention
>I believe.
Exactly. I forget the name, but there is at least one other Internantional copyright organization. Also, under at least one of these internantional ones (I forget which), in order to for your copyright protection to hold, one must copyright their works in the way that is applicable to their country and then it automatically receives the same protection as other copyrighted works in the other countries belonging to the international organization. For example, in Canada, where I live, if copyright my works here, my works (or computer program in this case as that's what this discussion is related to), my program is automatically copyrighted in Australia (I only use Australia as an example since I know it belongs to both organizations), and thus would receive the same copyright protection as people in Australia have for their copyright works under their copyright laws. I hope this helps. --
Christopher
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| Tue, 27 Jul 1999 03:00:00 GMT |
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