Cubic Dollars

[Clarence Wood]

Hi Greg and all,
  I knew I should have included this.....  
Again all quotes from "How to sell your Software" by Bob Schenot.

"Registration seems to take about four months.  You can obtain the appropriate forms and get information from:

Register of Copyright
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20559

Public Information: (202) 707-3000
Forms Hotline: (202) 707-9100

  "The copyright office publishes free circulars that will be useful to you--Circular1 ,'Copyright Basics'; Circular 2, 'Publications on Copyright'; and Circular 61, 'Copyright Registration for computer Programs.'
  "Registering a copyright requires you to submit the source code to the copyright office, where it is available to anyone.  While the copyright office instructs you to submit the first and last twenty-five pages of your source code and blank out all the trade secrets (up to 50 percent of the code), the legal community has questioned whether this would be sufficient, or if only that which is deposited would be protected."
  "In any case, there is general agreement that copyright is not a defense against reverse engineering.  Instead, I never let my source out to anyone...,but since my documentation contains all the 'public' information about the program, such as descriptions of key combination and screen layouts, I register a copyright on the documentation and help files and claim (but not register) a copyright on the program.  Since my documentation is embedded in the .exe, and the .exe won't run without it, I can't imagine how someone could violate my copyright on the program without simultaneously violating the registered copyright of the documentation."
  "If you do register a copyright on the program itself, be sure to read Circular 61 very carefully."
  "If you choose not to register, the law requires that you deposit two copies with the Library of Congress if the work is 'published.'  There are fines and other penalties for failure to comply."

Clarence



At 12:59 PM 1/28/99 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>>  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".
>
>OK --this is what I was talking about--does anybody know what you gotta do
>to "register" a copyright??
>
>I freely admit to being WAY out of date on this, but it would seem that
>they cannot sue you over it if they have not registered it.
>
>Where does one register a copyright, and what has to be submitted to do it??
>
>Regards, Greg
>
>
>