Graham, I think you would be safe; but, as I imagine you know, the phrase 'to copyright' is ambiguous. If you simply put
© copyright 2013 by Graham Hobbs on a piece of software, taking no further action, you are in principle afforded full protection. In practice, however, you are in a weaker position than you would be in if you registered a copy of your software appropriately for your jurisdiction. In the first case all of the usual questions---Who did what to whom? In what order?---are open to litigation; in the second case, they are usually not. Too much precision is is not finally possible. Patents and copyrights provide valuable protection; but when a lawyer tells you what the law is he is providing you with no more than, in the formulation of Justice Holmes, "an informed guess as to what the courts will enforce in a given set of circumstances". John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
