Re: Legal (c) Copyright'ing..

[valthoff@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Victoria M Althoff)]

In article <Pine.3.07.9402121814.A3598-a100000@cap.gwu.edu>,
Daniel Pfarrer <dpfarrer@CAP.GWU.EDU> wrote:
>I've noticed a lot of programs for the Apple // recently, that are kinda
>short (but good), are and released on the same day they were finished
>writting on. These programs also have a "(c) 1994" on them.
>
>Did these programmers go through the correct Copyright office, which
>charges $20 & you have a great change of waiting 90+ days for it to be
>approved, or are they just saying "(c) 1994" and taking their own legal
>action?
>
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.

Please note that I am not a lawyer, I am a broadcast technician for an NPR/APR 
affiliated radio station.  This is based on some research into this issue that 
I did a number of years ago, so my brain is a little sketchy on this...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.