🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <675@water.UUCP>, ljdickey@water.UUCP (Lee Dickey) writes:
> Almost every book I own has some statement about copyright near the
> front of the book.
> 
> I think that according to the copyright convention used in the United
> States an author who circulates his book without proper copyright
> notice no longer has any claim to copyright.
> 
> Now, regarding "BREAKOUT.ACC",  as far as I can see, in the copy that I
> have, there is no copyright notice.  Without that notice, should I feel
> an obligation not to copy it?  I think not.
> 
> I think that the owners of BREAKOUT.ACC long ago lost whatever legal
> claim they had to any protection that copyright might imply under US
> law. 

Once again, a posting from someone speculating on US Copyright Law.  This
set of laws changed sometime within the past ten years to afford much more
protection to the originators of a work.  Specifically, a work retains
copyright even without an explicit notice.  The notice and subsequent
registration permits the copyright holder to sue for damages.  Without this,
a copyright holder can still prohibit others from distributing the work.

These days, for a work to go into the public domain it needs to be
explicitely placed there.  The benefit of the doubt goes in favor of the
copyright holder.

Other changes in the law include a substantial lengthening of the time
period for copyright protection.

Please, people, before making any rash assumptions about the law, read one
of the many books available on the subject.

PS: The issue at hand is not specifically any one program, simply the wealth
of misinformation on the topic of copyright laws which are widely
misunderstood.
-- 
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