copyright notice

[Don Steiny]

**

	There have been several articles that are very confused.

	The term "public domain" is unrelated to copyrights.  
Copyrights are a means of protecting published material.
The only time it makes a difference if something is public
domain or not is if it is a trade secret, still another means
of protecting something.  If something is in the public 
domain it is not a trade secret, though it may still  be
copyrighted.

	This information is in "Legal Care for your Software"
Nolo Press, by Daniel Remer.   The most reveling line about
copyright is on p. 25.   It says: "A copyright, theoretically,
is automatically born the instant the program is transfered
from your mind to paper or floppy disk or other fixed form."

	The other steps, putting a copyright notice in your
work and filing with the Copyright office, are taken to prove
that you have copyrighted the work.   One takes these
steps iff they plan to enforce the copyright.   In practice,
simply putting the copyright notice in a work is sufficent
to copyright a work and you have up to a year to register
with the copyright office if you feel that the extra protection
in necessary  because of a pending court action.   If you 
donate something to the net, it is unlikely that you will want
to spend the money on legal fees to enforce your copyright, but
legally, if you say it is copyrighted then it is copyrighted.
If you specify restrictions on the use of the material that
are allowable under copyright laws the legally, these restrictions
apply.  However, these are CIVIL laws, not criminal, so if you
want to enforce a copyright, then it is up to you to take the
person(s) you feel violated the copyright to court.  

	Personally, I respect others copyrights.  I am an author
of articles, a book in progress, and one software system that is
on the market.  

	The stuff about giving a copy to the Library of Congress
or some other library is nonsense.


-- 
scc!steiny
Don Steiny @ Don Steiny Software 
109 Torrey Pine Terrace
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
(408) 425-0382