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From: ljdickey@water.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Copyright and BREAKOUT.ACC
Message-ID: <675@water.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Dec-86 20:56:38 EST
Article-I.D.: water.675
Posted: Tue Dec  9 20:56:38 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Dec-86 09:28:25 EST
References: <8612051453.AA13329@ohio-state.ARPA> <674@water.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 19

Almost every book I own has some statement about copyright near the
front of the book.  (There are curious anomalies:  one says,
charmingly, that anyone can copy any part of the book they want to.)
There are conventions about where the copyright notice should be and
what it should look like.

I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United
States an author who circulates his book without proper copyright
notice no longer has any claim to copyright.

Now, regarding "BREAKOUT.ACC",  as far as I can see, in the copy that I
have, there is no copyright notice.  Without that notice, should I feel
an obligation not to copy it?  I think not.

I think that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost whatever legal
claim they had to any protection that copyright might imply under US
law.  Of course, they might still have the source code, and could
modify it in ways that enhance its value, and perhaps could still make
some claim on the modified code.