Xref: utzoo news.groups:21689 comp.sys.atari.st:28982 misc.legal:18937 Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.sys.atari.st,misc.legal Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!aftermath!water!ljdickey From: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) Subject: Re: The comp.sys.atari.st.tech vote -- clarifications Message-ID: <1990Jun14.210540.3455@water.waterloo.edu> Organization: University of Waterloo References: <1990May15.131803.17231@wam.umd.edu> <18313@rpp386.cactus.org> <1990May18.214123.14992@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <1990May22.023212.9736@melba.bby.oz.au> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 90 21:05:40 GMT Lines: 16 In article ralph@laas.fr writes: > ... Doesn't the copyright have to be explicit? > And what's in *my* mailbox becomes *my* property, isn't that so? Not with the Berne convention, to which (belatedly) the US now subscribes. Most western nations have subscribed to this for years. If some famous person were to write you a letter, you may OWN it, and even sell it, but that does not mean that you have the right to publish it. The author holds the copyright, implicitly. I think that even if some unsolicited product arrives by mail, and you don't want it, you may be under some obligation to take reasonable precautions for it until the rightful owner shows up. Of course you may charge a reasonable storage fee.