Re: Mecc titles

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"Mike Westerfield" <MikeW50@aol.com> wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>>>No, it wouldn't. If you have permission of the copyright holder to use the
>>>copyright, it's not copyright violation.  Regardless of what the publisher
>>>says, if you can produce a document with the copyright owners signature
>>>giving you permission to do whatever it is you're doing, you would be
>>>covered.
>>
>> Not necessarily.  In the writing business, for example,
>> or the photography business, publishers may buy
>> exclusive rights to an individual's work.
>
>I may have been unintentionally loose with terms. Not being a lawyer, I may
>even be misusing them. But to me, if a publisher buys all rights to one of
>my copyrighted works, the _publisher_ is now the holder of the copyright.

I think so except for one thing.  The author is still the author.
The publisher cannot change the work and stick in another
person's name and claim that new person is the author.  In
essense, the publisher can use the work, but the work is
still the authors'.

I'm not sure if this is the same in the software industry.  I
noticed that sometimes the programmers' names are not in
the program, but that might have more to do with software
companies than publishers (ie. the software company owns
the work of programmers under their hire so the company
is only really obligated to put the company's name on the
software).

>Perhaps the _owner_ of the copyright would be a more appropriate legal term;
>I'm really not sure.  In any case, we're apparently intending to say the
>same thing.

I agree.  ;-)

>After a discussion like this, it always amazes me that some people think
>it's praise to say a computer programming language is "more English-like."
>:) Personally, I can't imagine a more damning insult for a programming
>language!

No way, computer languages are precise.  English is sloppy.
;-)  Actually, I think legal English is an attempt to make it
less sloppy and more precise.  Of course that means legal
documents are almost as hard to understand as program
code.  ;-)