🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9263@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccastje@pyr.gatech.EDU (John Adair) writes:
|Does anyone know the method for copyrighting software?  Is each revision
|a seperate copyright?  

Merely by sticking the message:

	Copyright 1989 Yourname

on the program, it is copyrighted.  You earn treble damages if you
register the copyright (using Form TX, obtainable from the Library of
Congress but I don't have the address handy).  Registration costs $10.

Subsequent versions of software should be re-copyrighted to guarantee
protection, but there are some weirdnesses covering derived works
which may actually give you some coverage.  I'd copyright each
revision specifically if I were worried about it.

A couple of caveats:  (c) is not equivalent to c-in-a-circle; if you
can't reproduce c-in-a-circle, you *must* use the word "copyright" or
the notice is invalid.  Thus:

	"(c) 1989 Yourname"           is invalid
	"Copyright 1989 Yourname"     is valid.
	"Copyright (c) 1989 Yourname" is valid.

I usually use the latter although the (c) is meaningless.  Another
common thing to do is "Copyright 1989 by Yourname" which is also
valid, although I'd limit the number of extraneous symbols or words
that I put in my notice.

Happy hacking,

jim frost
madd@std.com