Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!excelan!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Copyrighting
Keywords: advice
Message-ID: <342@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 28 Dec 89 20:20:39 GMT
References: <10756@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Distribution: na
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 26

Copyright ground rules. I am not a lawyer but took extracted this from
an article by a lawyer in a legal forum. Intended for information, not
detailed enough for actual hands on legal action.

1. Anything you publish without being marked as copyright still gets
some kind of automatic protection. In practice you will have a hard time
proving damages and taking legal action with only this protection.

2. If you mark something "Copyright (c) 19xx by Your Name" you will be
able to prevent people from using your work (it still may not be EASY,
though). The "c in a circle" may no longer be required for international
protection.

3. If you send a copy of the copyrighted material to someplace in
Washington it allows you to collect additional damages and makes it
easier to prove what you copyrighted. I am not sure what the amount of
additional damages is, just that you can't get them unless you do this.
I *believe* it's punitive in addition to actual, or something like that.

  Hope this clarifies the overall picture. I would suggest marking
*everything* you want to control with the copyright notice.
-- 
	bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
davidsen@sixhub.uucp		...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen

"Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon