Re: Asimov Site

[pausch@saafNOSPAM.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <39ad5717.56544079@24.9.0.17>,
Jeff Blakeney <CUTblakeney@home.com> wrote:
 
> On 30 Aug 2000 18:37:33 +0200, pausch@saafNOSPAM.se (Paul Schlyter)
> wrote:
> 
>> Well, that's good news for people who want free copies of software:
>> most software authors just put a (c) mark on their product and don't
>> bother to register it.  So all you have to do is to check whether
>> it's registered by the copyright office -- if it isn't, then it's
>> free for anyone to copy it.  Is that correct?
>> 
>> Now, how do I check whether a particular piece of work is registered
>> by the copyright office or not, and whether the copyright fee was paid
>> or not?
> 
> I have no idea how you would find out but it isn't necessary.  You
> don't NEED to register a copyright to get copyright protection.  Here
> is a quote from the US Copyright Law from which can be found at:
> http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap4.html
> 
>     ' 408. Copyright registration in general8
> 
>           (a) Registration Permissive.-At any time during the
>               subsistence of the first term of copyright in any
>               published or unpublished work in which the copyright was
>               secured before January 1, 1978, and during the
>               subsistence of any copyright secured on or after that
>               date, the owner of copyright or of any exclusive right
>               in the work may obtain registration of the copyright
>               claim by delivering to the Copyright Office the deposit
>               specified by this section, together with the application
>               and fee specified by sections 409 and 708. Such
>               registration is not a condition of copyright protection.
> 
> Please note the last sentence of that quote.
 
That's what I though.  It would have been really weird if copyright
protection didn't apply unless the author would explicitly have
applied for copyright at the copyright office.
 
 
> You still seemed to have missed the interesting bit of Sandra's
> statement which was:
> 
>>> their product should have that respected.
>>> It's not his or her *** choice *** that you are chosing to keep the
>>> computer that uses it.
 
Amen.
 
-- 
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