Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!faatcrl!jprad
From: jprad@faatcrl.UUCP (Jack Radigan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga animations on VHS now available
Message-ID: <1409@faatcrl.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 90 19:18:56 GMT
References: <00tK02X.a9Ii01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <1990May24.004025.15046@altitude.CAM.ORG> <1860@corpane.UUCP> <24938@usc.edu>
Organization: FAA Technical Center, Atlantic City NJ
Lines: 19

papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:

>consider Sentinel to be public domain.  Note also that the lack of a copyright
>notice on Sentinel does not make it public domain, due to the fact that this
>item is no longer required to mantain copyright.  While he feels that his
>animation can be freely redistributed on floppy media, he claims that NOBODY
>has the right to use his animation on videotape compilations without his 
>permission.

Partially true.  While ommision of a copyright no longer causes you to lose
complete control over the copyright, or even the exclusive rights to it, it
*does* make it impossible for you to win a copyright infringement case if the
infringer claims  Innocent infringer" status.

More importantly though is the fact that this protection is only extended to
US Copyright Law.  On the international level, the copyright would probably
be found invalid unless the country in question has signed the Berne Convention.

  -jack-