[CLUE-Talk] Legal breaking of the MS monopoly

[Matthew Porter]

"Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <jbrockmeier at earthlink.net> wrote:

> 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. 

Correct indeed.  Neither registration nor publication is required in order
to get basic copyright protection.

Also, while registration does require deposit of copies of the the work
with the Copyright office, the Copyright Office states that "If the work
is an unpublished or published computer program, the deposit requirement
is one visually perceptible copy of the source code of the first 25 and
last 25 pages of the program."  Also, deposit with the Copyright office !=
publication, and does not mean that anyone else can see the work.  "The
Copyright Office will not honor a request for a copy of someone else's
work without written authorization from the owner or from his or her
designated agent if that work is still under copyright protection, unless
the work is involved in litigation. Written permission from the copyright
owner or a litigation statement is required before copies can be made
available."  (Both quotes are from the U.S Copyright Office FAQ, at
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/faq.html .)

>If you attempted to register unpublished code, you'd
> simply be on the receiving end of a successful lawsuit.
> 

Not sure what you mean by this, Zonker.  "... attempted to register
unpublished code ..." ?


 --Matt.

----------
Matthew Porter
Golden, Colorado

mfporter at c-creature.com

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