Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ctrsol!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jaap+ From: jaap+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jaap Akkerhuis) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: is the shell copyrighted? Message-ID: Date: 18 Oct 89 16:49:34 GMT References: <091689A6859@syntel.mn.org>, <3739@ast.cs.vu.nl> Organization: Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: <3739@ast.cs.vu.nl> At the latest EUUG conference there was a talk with the tittle ``How to protect your software through International copyright laws: step-by-step instructions'' by Alicia Dunbar. The paper in the is interesting reading material. Relevant to this discussion it states that the US signed the Berne Convention as of March 1, 1989. It also states that: ``Protection is automatic anywhere as long as you are a citizen of a UCC (Universal Copyright Convention) or Berne country and the work is unpublished. However, once the work is published, you must adhere to the rules imposed by the member country with which the work is registered''. It has a list with these rules for various countries. For the US it states (among other things): ``Section 411 of the Copyright Act has been changed to a two-part system where American authors are required to register while authors of other countries are not.'' Of course paper stresses ``Last an most important'' to seek legal counsel on a country-by-countru basis to protect your intellectual property. And that is obvious, since I'm immediately wondering whether I as a foreigner living in the US are considered an american or not according to Chapter 411 of the Copyright Act... jaap