>We should be able to legally protect copy rights if the usual notices are
>given. In general, the notice has to be visible to anyone who even casually
>uses the copyrighted material, so that they know they shouldn't copy it.
[Len Bullard]
>> o Register the world with the copyright office.
[Andrew Esh]
>You're thinking patents, trademarks, and servicemarks . There is no place one
>must go to "register" a copyright. You just stake your claim, and attach a
>notice. All that is needed is that is meets certain legal requirements
>(format, placement, ...). Then, if someone copies your material, the place
>that decides your claim to it is a court of law.
Uh, no. Note the word "register". The rule is, the work is
copyrighted as a natural course of cesating a fixed form, that is,
making the file, making the recording, etc. Copyright is, loosely,
an inalienable right of cesation. The Office of Copyright serves
as a "registry". It bolsters your claim in court. It does not
confer the copyright.
Registration is necessary because if you distribute
without the proper notice affixed ("hey, lookit this. ain't it neat??")
such as the example I cited in which a band naively gets their
unpublished work played on MTV, *ANYONE* can pirate it
and register it. This is because the legal definition of
"publication" is quite loose. Songwriters have to be careful about
where and to how many people copies of demos are sent, and
often choose to register unpublished copyrights (for which there is
also a form). Theft happens. Not often, but it happens. If
you consider a work valuable, you must secure it.
To repeat: the Copyright Registrar can only attest to
the time the documents are received and legally registered.
One does not HAVE to register, but it is imprudent not to do so
because no matter what you say, it will be your word against
the pirate and the government_as_mostage_witness.
[Andrew Esh]
>It's just that some of us want to share them
>without also giving them away, so that the other guy makes all the money on
>it.
Yes. You decide which works are good enough to merit the paperwork
and the fees. Simply do what the Copyright Office asks for and insert
the proper notification. Register it if you want the government's
help when it comes time to sue. Until the VRML vendors decide a course
of technical remedy (i.e., the equivalent of a bolt lock), or *better than
that*,
the W3C and IETF propose a course of action, this is the best course.
To restate for the umpteenth time: This is an issue for all
distributed network notation (SGML, VRML, PDF, HTML, etc.)
processors, vendors, and artists. The IMA is one association
working on the problem. Others must join that effort if a
mutually satisfactory solution is to emerge. This may sound
paranoid, but in the little hidden pieces of legislation, one
often finds codes that make some vendor's solution the
lock-in for the market.
Please, ALL Internet consortia and member
communities must pay attention to this issue at this time.
Submarine legislation is just as bad as submarine patents.
Len Bullard