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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!ptsfa!hoptoad!unisoft!gethen!bdt!david
From: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Copyright notices (was: Shareware? Hah!)
Message-ID: <147@bdt.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 88 16:03:10 GMT
References: <4815@ihlpg.ATT.COM> <3343@killer.UUCP> <2608@gryphon.CTS.COM> <333@esquire.UUCP> <22977@brunix.UUCP> <21023@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer)
Organization: Beckemeyer Development Tools, Oakland, CA
Lines: 22


Copyright notice or no copyright notice, in my experience it's very
difficult to enforce outside the US and Canada.

There was a company in Germany that started to produce MT C-Shell with
their own manual, diskettes, and packaging.  German authorities informed
me that this is perfectly *legal* in Germany, becuase you can't copyright
anything but "works of art"; and software isn't in this category.

The only illegal act would be if they were claiming they were selling
"original" factory goods.  As long as they say they are selling copies,
it's legal in Germany.   Even if they are breaking the law, all we could
do is attempt to get a court order to force them to stop selling.

The best solution turned out to be getting a real legit. distributor
in Germany; and let the competition of a supported product for less 
money shut them down (which it did, I think).  I don't know if the
legal issues above are "correct", but that's what happened to us.
-- 
David Beckemeyer			| "To understand ranch lingo all yuh
Beckemeyer Development Tools		| have to do is to know in advance what
478 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland, CA 94610	| the other feller means an' then pay
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!hoptoad!bdt!david 	| no attention to what he says"