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From: madd@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.sources.d,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How to Copyright
Message-ID: <865@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 00:06:30 EST
Article-I.D.: bucsb.865
Posted: Thu Mar 26 00:06:30 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Mar-87 06:19:21 EST
References: <42@ethz.UUCP> <2823@well.UUCP> <8788@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: madd@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (Jim "Jack" Frost)
Organization: ODO (Organization for the Disorganization of Organization)
Lines: 42
Xref: utgpu misc.legal:940 comp.sources.d:495 comp.unix.questions:1507

In article <8788@decwrl.DEC.COM> reid@decwrl.UUCP (Brian Reid) writes:
>
>Please keep in mind that the person who posted the "How to Copyright"
>question lives in Switzerland. Copyright mechanisms vary from nation to
>nation, and not every country honors every other country's copyright laws. 
>If the question is "How to Copyright in Switzerland", the answer is likely to
>be quite different from "How to Copyright in the USA".

I missed the original article I guess, but how to copyright in the US
is easy.  First, it is perfectly legal to just put a notice on your
stuff (programs and/of literature) that says either:

	Copyright <person> <date>
or
	(c) <date> <person>

Actually, the order of <date> and <person> probably doesn't matter,
but either of the above is fine.

While the law says that just putting the notice in an obvious place
constitutes copyright, it's "more" legally binding to fill out a
form and file it with the government.  The form is form TX and is
available from the Library of Congress.  When I asked them for one,
they sent me about five copies and LOTS of literature on the copyright
laws and what they mean.  It costs about $10 to filethe form.  I guess
the form is just used to "prove" that the program was made by you when
you said it was.  This would definitely help in court, so I suggest
filing a form if you're worried about it.

If you don't file the form, you can do so at a later date.  This is
useful because you can file for the copyright when and if you might
need the documentation.  I have no idea why this is the case, but
that's what the documentation said.

If you need more info on copyrights, call your local library and ask.
You might also look up books on copyrighting, which is what I did.

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          Jim Frost * The Madd Hacker | UUCP: ..!harvard!bu-cs!bucsb!madd
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