Cubic Dollars

Clarence Wood clarencewood at centuryinter.net
Thu Jan 28 18:23:40 GMT 1999


Hi,
  quoting from "How to sell your Software" by Bob Schenot.  
  "A copyright protects the 'expression of an idea, not the idea itself'.  The actual copyright law is 17 United States Code, sections 101 through 810."
  "You do not need to do anything in the United States (since 1989) to have a copyright--it is automatic.  On the other hand, it is definitely to your advantage to include a 'notice' in your work...."
  "If an individual claims a copyright, that claim is good for his or her lifetime plus fifty years...."
  He goes on to talk about registering the copyright and says: "You can take legal action for infringement only after the copyright has been registered".
  He then states: "I question whether it makes sense to register (as opposed to claim) a copyright for software.  My reasoning is that, because you cannot copyright an idea, having protection for the source code is not very useful."
  Therein lies the confusion, in my mind anyway.  'Claiming' as opposed to copyright.  Since software can solve the same problem many different ways, the 'idea' comes into play when the problem is solved in a particular way.  Someone else can solve the same problem a different way without infringing on your software.  The only thing that copyright protects is the pirating of the entire program; your 'expression of an idea'.
  It is also important to mail a copy of your software to somebody out of state.  You need proof that it was 'published'.

Clarence
  


At 07:05 AM 1/28/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>(snip)
>>>Do any of the software oriented folks out there know what material you have
>>>to submit to complete a copyright on software???? Or does anybody even
>>>bother cuz of the development cycle being so short????
>>>
>>
>>  When writing windows programs, in the 'Help' menu box, the copyright and
>>'c' in a circle is present with date and author.  I have not really dug
>>into this in depth but I believe that this procedure protects the
>>software.  Hackers can remove this information and I have read of several
>>software programmers who, to protect their work, have imbedded certain
>>keystrokes, in the program, that when entered while the program was
>>running, would display information about the copyright and author.  This
>>technique won one independent programmer a bundle in court when he proved
>>that he wrote the program, stolen and marketed by another company, by
>>typing keystrokes which initiated a screen display showing his copyright
>>information.
>>
>>Clarence
>
>NEAT!!--But I still think that after some period of time, you need to file
>an official copy to COMPLETE the copyright process--Anybody know about this
>part??
>
>Greg
>
>
>



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