🚀 go-pugleaf

WARNING: I AM NOT A LAWYER!

As I understand it, under the Berne Convention, copyright inheres in a
work automatically. Placing a copyright notice on the work is a way of
indicating that the author (or performer) intends to protect that
copyright. Registering the copyright (by sending a copy of the work,
along with a registration notice and some money) is a stronger
announcement of intention to protect the copyright.

The US is a recent signatory to the Berne Convention. Canada has been a
signatory for many years. I believe that, in a recent US ruling, letters
written by J.D. Salinger were determined to be copyrighted, and
therefore Salinger's right to prevent their publication was upheld. This
would not have happened under earlier US copyright law: the letters
themselves have no copyright notice on them. 

A work is adjudged to be in the public domain if: (a) the copyright has
expired (as did the copyright on Sherlock Holmes a couple of years ago);
(b) ownership cannot be ascertained (I have a friend who writes songs;
each such song he records, and then sends to himself via registered
mail. Should there be a dispute over ownership, he can demonstrate, from
the registration frank, when he recorded the song.); or (c) if the owner
has not made any clear attempt to protect the copyright. 

Hence, under the Berne Convention, a copyright notice is not necessary.
It does, however, save the owner enormous hassles should rights be
contested. 

--
\    Vincent Manis <manis@cs.ubc.ca>      "There is no law that vulgarity and
 \   Department of Computer Science      literary excellence cannot coexist."
 /\  University of British Columbia                        -- A. Trevor Hodge
/  \ Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1W5 (604) 228-2394