[CLUE-Talk] Legal breaking of the MS monopoly WAS: Re:[CLUE-Tech] HP laptop

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Grant Johnson wrote:

*snip*

> This begs a new question:
> Since the source code itself is not registered with the copyright office
> (otherwise it would have to be published) can copyright law actually
> protect it?  How can they claim that it is original material, if it is
> not published so that claims to the contrary can be made?  The only way
> to secure ownership is copyright, and the only way to secure copyright
> is to register or publish it.  Since no one has copyrighted this, if I
> get a copy, and register it myself, do I then own the Windows monopoly?
>
> Makes you say hmmmmmmm..........

Not really. The code in human-readable form is not published, but
the resulting executables are. In a similar fashion, you can copyright
music without publishing the notation that is or would be used.
Using your argument, a group would have to publish the notation for
a song to copyright it which clearly isn't the case.

Also, copyright is affixed as soon as something is created, not when
it is registered. If you attempted to register unpublished code, you'd
simply be on the receiving end of a successful lawsuit.

Take care,

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
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"If there's going to be any future for us, our first invention
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