Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!xanth!rlb
From: rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: copyrights
Message-ID: <8876@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 12 May 89 04:19:26 GMT
References: <606.2467C5AD@busker.FIDONET.ORG>
Reply-To: rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 27

In article <606.2467C5AD@busker.FIDONET.ORG> Howard.Spindel@busker.FIDONET.ORG (Howard Spindel) writes:
>> worthy
>> f being sold, the question of copyrighting it comes up.  Specifically, 
>> how
>> I find out if the name I have in mind is already taken, and, if not, how
>> o I register my program?  Any and all comments appreciated.
>>
>Don't know how to find out if the name is in use, but to copyright your 
>program call your local government information office and ask to get a 
>copy of Form TX.  It will cost you 10 dollars to copyright a program.
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Wrong.  It does not cost anything to copyright a program. In fact, no
form is required to copyright a program. Technically, a program or any
other written material is copyrighted at the moment that it is created.
The author has only to include a LEGAL copyright notice in the work.  
>
I don't have my copyright info at hand but I believe that a notice must
be of the form:
	Copyright 1989, John Doe
Authors should note that the common computer usage of (c) 1989 is NOT
a legal copyright notice.  The common misconception is that (c) can be
substituted for the CIRCLED C.  The circled C is acceptable as a 
substitute for the word "copyright".  But, I'm off the original topic
now.  Form TX and the 10 dollar fee is for REGISTRATION of an author's
copyright, not for the actual copyright itself.  Copyright registration
is simply a tool that an author can use to defend his ownership of the
work in the event of copyright infringement.