copyright notice

[dgary at ecsvax.UUCP]

In article <604 at scc.UUCP> steiny at scc.UUCP (Don Steiny) writes:
>	The term "public domain" is unrelated to copyrights.  

Absolutely not true.

>Copyrights are a means of protecting published material.

Also unpublished material.  If you write a novel or a program, you
automatically own copyright until it is published (as you yourself quote
from the book you cite!).  A copyright notice is required in published
material if you wish to retain copyright.  Publishing a work without
copyright notice effectively surrenders ownership to the public domain.

>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.

You seem to misinterpret "public domain" to mean "publicly available."
Public domain is a legal expression meaning the public owns the
copyright (or, to put it differently, that there is no copyright).

>	This information is in "Legal Care for your Software"
>Nolo Press, by Daniel Remer.

I have the book (along with a number of others on the subject), and you
seem to be misreading it.

>	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,

No argument there.  If you register you are entitled to greater
recovery in any legal action you may take, but registration costs money.
If you publish a work you are legally required to send copies to the
Library of Congress *whether or not you elect to register*.  I've never
heard of anyone getting in trouble for failing to do so, however.  I had
even forgotten this requirement existed until a friend of mine who does
research in the Library of Congress reminded me.

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

The Library of Congress disagrees with you.
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
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