Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bbn!spdcc!weaver
From: weaver@spdcc.COM (Read Weaver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: copyrights
Message-ID: <3239@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 15 May 89 15:18:59 GMT
References: <606.2467C5AD@busker.FIDONET.ORG> <31125@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: weaver@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Read Weaver)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 20

According to _Chicago Manual of Style_ (13):

Registration, it should be noted, is not necessary to "obtain" a copyright
(which exists in the work from the moment it is created) or to assure its
validity, but responsible publishers seldom publish without registering
copyright because of the added protection registration affords.  Unlike the
copyright notice, registration puts on public record the exact details of
a copyright claim. In cases of infringement registration is a prerequisite
to bringing suit, and if registration has been made within three months of
publication, or before the alleged infringement, the copyright owner, instead
of going through the difficulties of proving actual damages, can sue for
statutory damages--and for attorney's fees as well.

This is important because actual damages are likely to be pretty small (in
addition to being difficult to prove).  Statutory damages mean you don't
have to show you've lost money because of the infringement: the infringement
*itself* is sufficient to incur penalty.  Perhaps I should add that Chicago13
is from 1982, and that the U.S. copyright law is from 1976, so recent case law
may have more to say on this.  And that the above passage primarily concerns
text, and not specifically software.