At 05:05 PM 9/2/98 -0500, Kathy Miles wrote: >I would like to make this book >available for anyone to read but don't like the idea that someone could >rip it off and sell it themselves. Any suggestions or solutions to this >concern would be appreciated.
Perhaps your copyright page could be a license for electronic copies only and expressly forbid paper copies, other that single copies for personal use. Specifically, forbid multiple printed copies and photocopier copies. Specifically, forbid the sale of copies. I'd recommend seeing a lawyer about something like this unless you can find a pre-existing license that meets your needs. For full protection in the U.S., you might want to go through the real copyright registration process for the following reasons. Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 408. Copyright registration in general <http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/4-408.html> says "(a) Registration Permissive. <snip> Such registration is not a condition of copyright protection." This means you are still afforded copyright protection even if you don't register your work. However, Section 412. Registration as prerequisite to certain remedies for infringement <http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/4-412.html> says "In any action under this title, other than an action brought for a violation of the rights of the author under section 106A(a) or an action instituted under section 411(b), no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees, as provided by sections 504 and 505, shall be made for (1) any infringement of copyright in an unpublished work commenced before the effective date of its registration; or (2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work. This means you get the chance to recover your costs for prosecuting infringement. I am not a lawyer so I may not have the correct understanding. I do not know if this loss of remedy for infringement is really a serious issue for you but some people aren't aware of this nuance. I intend no offense if I am offering ideas that are against the Debian cultural norm. I am still a newbie here. In full consideration of the situation, I have made the personal choice to copyleft all my creative works under the GPL and I generally recommend it as the best way to maximize the co-creation, collaborative process (IMHO). <SOAPBOX> I seek copyleft protection for all Works that may be copyrighted under "Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 102. Subject matter of copyright: In general" <http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/1-102.html>. I seek GPL coverage for the digital form and the physical form.</SOAPBOX> These are some thoughts, hope they help. -- Copyright (c) 1998 Lyno Sullivan; this digital object is free and may be copied, modified and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html and it comes with absolutely NO WARRANTY; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
