I should add that in general in the US and most countries copyright notices are unnecessary. I compare them to a "Private Property" sign on your front lawn: it would still be private property without the sign, but the sign warns your neighbors that you might be serious about it.
Under current US copyright law and the Berne Convention, copyright inures to the author of a creative work upon the moment s/he "fixes the work in a tangible medium" (including, by statute, computer memory). So if you think up a story and recite it for your friends you do not own a copyright, but as soon as you write the story down or key it into your computer you do, notice or no. Similarly copyright registration is a big help in litigation, but you nonetheless own the copyright even if you never pay the government a nickel or fill out any official forms. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 3:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Strange comment in PTF. (C) is common in limited character set copyright messages as a stand-in for the copyright symbol but has no standing in statute law and I believe has never been tested in court. So the preference is just Copyright 2015 Charles Mills, not (C) Copyright 2015 Charles Mills. The (C) does nothing and is what the Copyright Office calls "surplusage" -- meaningless excess verbiage (as is the ever-popular, long-obsolete "all rights reserved"). Charles ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
