Re: Legal (c) Copyright'ing..

[blakjak@panix.com (noah MITTMAN)]

Victoria M Althoff (valthoff@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) screamed from comp.sys.apple2:

: I believe that the Copyright Law provides copyright protection from the date 
: that the product is created.  Therefore, it is proper to go ahead and state 
: that your program is copyrighted, without bothering to go through the 
: registration process.  The only problem with this is that if you, as an author,
: wish to bring action against someone infringing your copyright, you must be 
: able to prove that the product existed prior to the alleged infringement.  The 
: most common protection, in this case, is copyright registration.  The Copyright
: Law does not actually require registration for protection, as I understand it.
: Registration simply provides a recognized method for identifying a date of 
: creation.  You could just as easily mail yourself a copy of the source code, 
: and use the postmark date of the *sealed* envelope as your proof.

Yes, as I remember this is true. Registration is more of a service than it
is a requirement.
(This had come up in my screenwriting class - though the process of
"registering" involved the Writer's Guild and other anomalies :D)

And yes, I heard the same example of the letter-mailed-to-yourself, but for
some reason I remember it being certified mail. No matter.
-- 
                         b  l  a  c  k  J  A  C  k
  Internet blakjak@panix.com  FVNet #3@#53  original score by Wierzbowski
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"She's dead. She's alive. It's a little confusing."-Alek  COMING THESIS '95