Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!decvax!tektronix!percival!qiclab!leonard
From: leonard@qiclab.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: New compromise position on rec.humor.funny
Message-ID: <2031@qiclab.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 89 05:40:01 GMT
References: <2732@looking.UUCP> <2885@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Reply-To: leonard@qiclab.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Qic Laboratories, Portland, Oregon.
Lines: 18

[comments about "everything on usenet is PD unless you explicitly
declare otherwise", deleted]

According to an attorney working for a local firm that specializes in
copyright, patent, and trademark law this WILL change.

On April 1st, 1989 a new copyright law takes effect. Under it you no
longer have to include a copyright notice to claim a copyright!!!
Thus on the net we are going to have to start assuming that anything
*without* a SPECIFIC diclaimer of copyright is in fact copyrighted.

This is going to be a major mess...

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short