All of what Alan says is true: notices increase
your protection, filing increases it more. But
lack of notices does NOT mean that you do not
keep the rights to your "expression". To the
best of my understanding, under the Berne convention
(an international treaty on copyright to which
the US is signatory), everything is copyright
unless a notice -releasing- interest is attached.
--
-Richard M. Hartman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
186,000 mi./sec ... not just a good idea, it's the LAW!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Pinstein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 9:09 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: copyright??
>
>
> You can copyright text, layouts, etc. This means that if you
> copyright your
> software, then someone can't make something else that is 'strikingly
> similar'. They can copy the idea, but not the 'expression' as
> someone else
> put it. It is also illegal to reverse engineer and re-use
> code, as someone
> did to us.
>
> However, even though the law protects you, there are steps
> you have to take
> to gain this protection. That's the catch. You SHOULD write '(C) 1999
> Synergy Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.' on all text,
> manuals, and
> about screens for your product. BUT that really only works to
> prove that
> you've copyrighted someone if you want to sue them. Meaning
> that if you
> really think someone has caused you material harm, then you
> can sue them
> and say 'Look, I put a copyright notice on my work and
> someone stole it.'
> You then have to prove material damages and that's what you
> get. However,
> that requires a lengthy trial and lots of lawyer time. It's really not
> worth it... Plus, there is some statute of limitations on
> this notice, I
> think you have 1 year from the original publication until the
> copyright
> loses some significance.
>
> The steps you need to take for real protection are to file
> for a Copyright
> with the government. I think it shouldn't cost more than
> $1000 with legal
> fees. Once your work is on file with the US Copyright office, you gain
> STATUTORY RIGHTS. That means if someone copies your work, all
> you have to
> do is prove that it is strikingly similar and that the other
> person had
> access to your work (thus implying that he stole it). Then
> you are awarded
> statutory damages very easily and I think it's about $50-$500 per
> occurence. It requires some foresight, but that's the way to
> go. Plus, if
> someone copies your stuff, you can quickly get an injuction
> against them
> from the US Copyright office and prevent them from selling it.
>
> The reason I know something about the matter is from my
> looking into the
> theft of MagicText (formerly TextEditHack). Another (nameless) company
> released a product that was so strikingly similar that I was
> incensed at
> the thought that my hard work was ripped off. I even did some
> technical
> research and found that the code was most certainly stolen beyond any
> reasonable doubt. So I wanted to sue, and I called our
> lawyers. She then
> explained everything to me that I mentioned above, and we
> decided that it
> wasn't worth the cost of pursuing the infringer, esp. since
> they were in
> another country. If we had had a copyright filed, we could
> have simply gone
> to the Dept. of State and Copyright offices and easily gotten an
> injunction. Instead, the product is still being sold today!
>
> Hope that helps, (and please, if anyone has any corrections
> or comments,
> please post them. I'm not a lawyer!)
>
>
> Alan Pinstein
> Synergy Solutions, Inc.
> http://www.synsolutions.com
> 1-800-210-5293
>
>
> >Hello everyone,
> >
> >I recently decided to write programs for the Palm, and I am
> new to all this
> >world of shareware development. Last december, after
> working very hard to
> >learn the Palm OS programming techniques and nuts and bolds
> I finished my
> >first program "Euro Exchange", and a more advanced version I named
> >"CurrencyX".
> >
> >Very recently I was disheartened to see that someone
> "cloned" my program,
> >copying the concepts and screen designs, releasing it as freeware.
> >
> >Writing programs for the palm has the main objective of practicing my
> >programming skills, and having fun, even because the $5 / $8 for a
> >registration would not make me a millionaire, it actually
> barely covers the
> >development costs. However, that does not mean I would like
> to see my
> >programs being cloned like that.
> >
> >Maybe some of you, more experienced developers and shareware
> authors could
> >give some help with this.
> >
> >I would appreciate any kind of comments and suggestions.
> >
> >Thank you,
> >Armando Neves.
>
>
>
>
