Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!udel!new
From: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: PD or Shareware Copyrights
Message-ID: <18280@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 22 Jun 89 17:06:11 GMT
References: <18195@louie.udel.EDU>
Sender: usenet@udel.EDU
Reply-To: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 19



By putting the words Copyright 1989 Your Name in the opening screen
of the program and in all printed documentation, you have a copyright
on the program. Before you can sue for violation of copyright, you
must register that copyright with the federal government, which basically
entails filling out a form (no laywer needed) and sending it in with
a copy (or two, I forget) of the work and a $25-$50 fee. Note that if
you put the copyright notice on, and then someone copies it, and then you 
register it, you can still sue but you can't get some of the 
punitive (sp?) damages. It is not legal to use (C) or Copyrighted.
The little c in a circle is OK (and is in the Amiga ROM fonts somewhere).
The copyright gives you rights to control duplication, public performance,
distribution (I'm not quite sure what this means), and creation of
derivative works. If you say Public Domain then anyone can do anything
they like with it.  In other words, saying "This is Public Domain except that
you can't sell it for money" is oxymoronic. -- Darren

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a lawyer. I just have a layman's knowledge about it.