Re: Mecc titles

["Mike Westerfield" <MikeW50@aol.com>]

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In article <19990926201056.22515.00002677@ng-ck1.aol.com>, 
supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:


> The copyright itself
> says to the government "if this software is discovered
> pirated, I want to enforce the copyright."


Agreed.  And I agree with the intent of the law.  But there are still some
interesting gray areas.  One is that, as stated by you, I just violated
copyright law.  (I think.)  Under current copyright law, pretty much any
original work, literally down to a scribble on a napkin, is copyrighted.
While I don't see the D.O.J. prosecuting for it, that would technically make
copying someone's post a copyright violation unless they explicitly released
it to the public domain.

There is an additional level of copyright protection that you get by
registering a copyright, but that actually serves to increase the penalties
and provide a record of ownership, not to establish the actual original
copyright.

It would be interesting to see what a copyright lawyer who has actually
studied the statute says about these gray areas.

Mike Westerfield

...and all of this, and any other post I make in a public area, is, as far
as I am concerned, public domain. ;)