Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ucsd!sdcc6!ir230
From: ir230@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (john wavrik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Copyright
Message-ID: <6107@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 90 05:14:56 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 45


Regarding copyrights I've heard something bizarre:

    Suppose A writes a program which he does not intend to copyright
       but instead makes it freely available.

    Suppose B takes some or all of A's program, incorporates it in his
       work and puts *his* copyright on the whole thing.

    The (bizarre) claim is that A no longer has rights to his own program and 
       infringes on B's copyright if he either continues to distribute 
       his original work or (particularly) if he later decides to use the 
       ideas for a commercial product. Similarly any other party who uses A's 
       work must obey the condition's of B's copyright even though he got
       the ideas from A rather than B.

I find this impossible to believe!!!

 
                                THE QUESTION
  Do you in any way give up rights to the use of your own computer work by 
  allowing others to see it without your copyright notice on it?
   

P.S.  My understanding had been that B would not have to pay A royalties 
      because he got A's ideas when they were free. It never seemed possible 
      that A's failure to copyright his own work would affect his ability to 
      use it. I also believed that others could continue to use A's work
      because it had made it freely available.

      Obviously the area of computer programs is complicated by the fact that 
      one person can use part of another person's program -- or that one 
      person's entire program can only be part of a second person's work. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
   I suspect there are several people in this newsgroup who have
   gone to the point of contacting a lawyer about this kind of thing.
   I'd like to know what they found out. Please no rumors or 
   speculation -- just the facts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                  John J Wavrik 
             jjwavrik@ucsd.edu                    Dept of Math  C-012 
                                                  Univ of Calif - San Diego 
                                                  La Jolla, CA  92093