Hi Kevin, You're pretty close. As Richard notes, Copyright and protection under the Copyright law are two separate, but obviously related, things.
Under US copyright law, the author of a work owns that work. Period. The word copyright means what it says. It denotes the right to copy a work. Unless that right is explicitly transferred by the author to someone else, the author is the only one that has that right. Small portions of a work *can* be copied as long as attribution to the author / owner is provided. If however, the owner wants to _protect and defend her rights to_ that work, then the owner must give notice. And the (c) (or the word copyright) is not sufficient. The notice must also contain the name of the entity claiming ownership and the date when ownership is claimed. So you must supply a notice like "copyright 2006, Bill Walton". The notice allows persons wishing to cite / use the work to whom to attribute it / ask for permission to use it. The amount of a work being used dictates whether you can just provide attribution (as when quoting a sentence or two) or you have to get the author's permission (as when you want to compile a book of short stories) If you don't give others the ability to comply with the law, then you can't claim protection under it. Copyright law applies to all written works. It also applies to a work independent of form. Music, for example, is protected under Copyright law. The protection is based on the existence of sheet music, but applies to the performance as well. Same is true for audio books. So you're both right on different but related topics. Richard is right in that the ownership 'default' is copyright. You are right in that the 'default' is no copyright *protection*. If you want to stay clear of the kind of crap going on with SCO and Linux, follow Richard's advice. Best regards, Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Toppenberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: 2006-03-14 12:12 PM Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] Wiki -- who owns the content? My understanding of copyright law (limited) was that if one expects something to be protected by copyright, then one has to inform potential viewers/readers/listeners. Otherwise they may not know to protect your content. Thus without a (c) attached, then one could not come back and claim infringement. Thus I thought that the default was NO copyright. You are saying the default IS copyright. Perhaps this is the blind arguing with the blind... :-) Kevin On 3/13/06, Richard Schilling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ownership of postings, like an open source applicaion itself > automatically belongs to the author(s) - UNLESS the terms of usage on > the Wiki state that all postings become property of the Wiki maintainer. > > Perhaps a terms of use statement should be created for that Wiki. > > The open source license used to disemminate the posting doesn't actually > affect ownership - it signifies that the owner has guaranteed the > posting can be distributed without compensating him/her. > > The concepts of ownership and distribution licenses are oft confused :-) > > And I wouldn't rely on Google or anyone else keeping a permanent archive > either.... > > Richard Schilling > > > Bhaskar, KS wrote: > > No, it doesn't. But I was only speaking to the concern voiced in your > > post that I replied to. > > > > -- Bhaskar > > > > On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 16:07 -0600, Dan wrote: > > > >>That really doesn't resolve the ownership issue though, does it? > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language > > that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast > > and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! > > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642 > > _______________________________________________ > > Hardhats-members mailing list > > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language > that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast > and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=k&kid0944&bid$1720&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
