From: Greg Broiles <greg@agora.rain.com>
Subject: Re: Postings on sci.virtual-worlds and Copyright Protection
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1991 10:41:59 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Aug6.104159.6546@agora.uucp>
Organization: Open Communications Forum


In article <1991Aug5.191444.12583@milton.u.washington.edu> cyberoid@milton.
u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes:

>It's been brought to my attention, as moderator, that material which has
>been posted to sci.virtual-worlds is beginning to show up in various
>commercial books and journals.  As a result, if you post an item here,
>you may have the strange experience of seeing your thoughts copyrighted
>by someone else.  There is no nefarious intent on the part of the publish-
>ers, who are just protecting their own work.  But your ideas may
>inadvertently become others' property.

Umm, no.  Magazine publishers cannot simply take other people's works and,
by publishing them, convert them into their property.  As soon as a work has
been preserved in a 'fixed medium of expression' (if I remember the legalese
correctly), it is automatically (and without need of a notice) copyrighted
by the author, in the absence of any other agreements (such as being paid to
produce the work - as in the case of some journalists).

On the other hand, a suit to recover damages from the magazine publisher
probably wouldn't go anywhere.

>A copyright notice goes like this:
>
>        Copyright (c) 1991 Human Interface Technology Laboratory
>                                   - or -
>                Copyright (c) 1991 Robert Jacobson
>

The (C) or (c) is legally useless, but the word "Copyright" is essential.
Again, you don't need to explicitly declare your copyright for it to exist.
(You do, however, need to do so - and register your work with the Library of
Congress - before you bring suit to recover damages from someone using your
work without your permission.)

I'm not a lawyer, but I like to read about copyright law.


-- 
".. organized crime is the price we pay for organization." - Raymond Chandler
Greg Broiles          | CI$:      74017,3623   |          greg@agora.rain.com
PO Box 8988, Portland, OR  97207-8988          |            MCIMail: gbroiles


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