Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!apple!usc!pollux.usc.edu!papa
From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: PD or Shareware Copyrights
Message-ID: <18110@usc.edu>
Date: 27 Jun 89 01:34:42 GMT
References: <18195@louie.udel.EDU> <18280@louie.udel.EDU> <18058@usc.edu> <556@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com>
Sender: news@usc.edu
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 36

In article <556@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com> crs@cpsc6b.cpsc6a.att.com (Chris (Is it Friday yet?!?!?) Seaman) writes:
>In article <18058@usc.edu>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
>< It is not the federal government but the Copyright Office, and the fee is
>< only $10.
>
>I was once told (by someone who claimed to have advised by an attorney) that
>if you were to take your work (i.e., source code, artwork, or whatever),
>put in an envelope (or diskette mailer), seal it in such a way that a
>postal mark would cover the seal, and mail it to yourself, that this
>would be binding evidence of copyright in court.  Does this still hold
>under the Berne Convention?

This has been done before, BUT it is not equivalent to copyright registration,
i.e. in an infringment lawsuit there is no way to recover punitive damages
(only 'actual" damages can be collected and these are usually pretty small).

>Do you have the responsibility to prove the date of publication?  I guess
>what I am curious about is source code (copyrighted) that is distributed
>via Usenet (or other networks).  After three months, it might be difficult
>prove original distribution date.  Or, more importantly, does posting
>to Usenet constitute publication?

Yes, posting source code on Usenet (or BIX, or Compuserve, etc..) constitutes
publication.

>Are you sure about this?  I've seen a number of printed manuals use '(C)',
>primarily since the printing mechanism didn't support the 'cirle c' symbol.

Since since has been reashed before aat least 20 times, and it usually starts
an entire new thread, I WON'T comment on that. Ask your lawyer.

-- Marco Papa 'Doc'
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