Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ulysses!smb
From: smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: compilation copyright question
Keywords: poster's rights
Message-ID: <11198@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 10 Feb 89 02:03:08 GMT
References: <5982@leadsv.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 38

In article <5982@leadsv.UUCP>, webb@leadsv.UUCP (J.J. Webb) writes:
} 
} novice question.
} 
} Suppose I post a poem, program, funny story, etc. and affix a
} copyright statement to it. Now, comes along a [moderator, a
} compilation guru, a collector, historian, etc.] and includes something
} that I've posted in his/her [joke book, poetry collection, history
} book, etc.] and declares a compilation copyright. She/He starts selling
} a printed version for $9.95 and an electronic version for $8-$9/hr
} connect time.  If he/she didn't get my permission, aren't my rights
} being violated?

Yes, your rights would be violated.  Such behavior is in fact illegal.
The compilation copyright represents the ``value added'' by the compiler;
that doesn't absolve the compiler of the need to legitimately acquire
source material.  An analogy is a person who builds patented widgets:
the patent protects that person's intellectual work, but that does not
grant the right to use other patented designs, or for that matter free
raw materials.  If you want to use something, you must do whatever is
necessary to earn the right to.

Brad undoubtedly feels that since articles are mailed to him, implicit
permission has been granted for their incorporation.  In a more formal
world, that does not suffice; when you submit a paper to a journal, you
are asked to sign a formal copyright release or copyright transfer form.
I direct your attention to comp.org.usenix, which is seeking rights to
republish electronically papers that have already appeared in their
proceedings.  They already had that copyright, but have a formal release
form they want you to sign to grant them rights to the electronic version.

Incidentally, you don't have to affix a copyright statement to have rights
to your creations; current law says that an implicit copyright is vested
in you at the moment the work was created.  Enforcement is another matter,
but the copyright exists.


		--Steve Bellovin