Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!ritcv!ritcsh!gregory
From: gregory@ritcsh.UUCP (Gregory Conway)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Copyright ...
Message-ID: <798@ritcsh.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 17:39:33 GMT
References: <11480@brl-adm.ARPA> <8722@ism780c.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Science House @ RIT, Rochester, NY
Lines: 20

In article <8722@ism780c.UUCP>, darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) writes:
> As regards whether a copyright-notice-less work is by default in the
> public domain, the 1976 copyright law specifically gives the author 5 years
> to properly amend the work and register it.  About the only way to be sure
> a work is in the public domain is to prove that the author has so released
> it or that it was created long enough ago that it could not be copyrighted
> any more.

All very true.  According to the book "Software Protection", by G. Gervaise 
Davis III, (p. 60) the moment a program is recorded in some permanent
form, be it paper, disk, or anything else, it is legally copyrighted.
Of course, failure to register the program will limit the authors right
to protection.  Nonetheless, registered or not, the program is copyrighted.
You would be wise to use caution in assuming the work is public domain.

-- 
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Nothing I have said has any bearing on reality.  So there.
Who wrote that??
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