Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site rtech.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!amdahl!rtech!jeff
From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: copyright vs. publication
Message-ID: <109@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 20:51:54 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.109
Posted: Sun Feb  9 20:51:54 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 06:15:30 EST
References: <6371@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Relational Technology Inc, Alameda CA
Lines: 43

> 
>> > Material posted to USENET is the copyright
>> > property of the poster under U.S. statute.
>> 
>> How can that be?  If I post something here, copyright means I have the
>> right to control copies.  But the very nature of the Net implies massive
>> copying out of my control, and I know that.  So, haven't I given
>> implicit privileges to others, merely by posting?
> 
> No more than you give such privileges to others by, say, publishing an
> article in Scientific American.  By arranging for its publication, you
> have consented to the copying inherent in that particular operation.
> But you have not given away your control over its copying for other
> purposes.
> -- 
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology

Every issue of Scientific American contains the following statement:

	"Copyright (C) 1986 by Scientific American, Inc.  All rights
	 reserved.  Printed in the U.S.A.  No part of this issue may be
	 reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic
	 process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may
	 it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise
	 copied for public or private use without written permission
	 of the publisher."

I trust that Scientific American won't sue me for copying their copyright
notice. :-)  The point is that, with few exceptions you must affix a
copyright notice to a work when you publish it if you want to retain
copyright.  I don't know what a court would say about USENET; my guess is
that the news system would be considered a form of publication, and that
the author should be protected from unauthorized copies made outside of the
USENET system, as long as a copyright notice were attached to the original.

Here's a question: Suppose the line eater swallows someone's copyright
notice?  What protection does the author have?
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff