(C)

[Donald Eastlake]

I am not a lawyer but I have read a fair amount on intellectual property
law and legal aspects of computer software protection.  As far as I can
remember, nothing that I have ever read gives any credance to the
obviously widely held theory that "(C)" or "(c)" are valid marks to
indicate a copyright.  The only valid marks I ever see listed are

	1.  "Copyright"

	2.  "Copr."

	3.  The letter C completely enclosed in a circle.

A particularly common place to see just "(C)" with a year and a name is
in source code.  Presumably "Copyright" would work if it was in all caps
or all lower case since they are "close enough" to the originally
required notice.  Is that the theory with a "C" in parenthesis, that it
is "close enough" to being in a circle?  Is there any case law on this?

Of course many people say "Copyright (C) ..." which should work fine.

-- 
	+1 617-492-8860		Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA:  dee at CCA-UNIX	usenet:	{decvax,linus}!cca!dee