Author: David H. McClain
Date: 08:58:56 11/18/05
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On November 18, 2005 at 11:41:12, Ted Summers wrote: >On November 18, 2005 at 11:35:53, Andrew Williams wrote: > > >> >>Proving you own the copyright is different to owning the copyright. As soon as >>you create something, it belongs to you. Whether or not you can prove it >>subsequently is a different question entirely. But it is VERY important to >>understand that you don't have to assert your ownership of something you have >>created to legally be the owner of it. >> >>Andrew > >On the whole I agree with your last statement. However I still believe there is >a problem with a copyright that is not spelled out. Just what automatic rights >would would a person be claiming? Ted, Andrew is correct: 1) "If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted." (False) This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure. http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
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