CompuServe Messages

That is indeed the MAJOR concern that we all have (including myself). At this point in time, I can't give you an answer. Was he misquoted? Did he not say what he meant. DID he say what he meant? I don't know. However, I'm sure that CompuServe will make a formal policy statement before the weekend that will (hopefully) tell us EXACTLY what they mean. What I expect them to say is the policy most of the sysops on CIS have been following all along — no one has any rights to public domain and thus it can be redistributed — shareware programs (by the nature of the shareware concept) have the implicit permission of the author for redistribution (unless there are stipulations imposed by the author) — copyrighted files uploaded to CompuServe by the author (or with his permission) may not be distributed further unless permission by the author is granted. I then expect CompuServe to further explain their compilation copyright — an intact collection of files from CIS databases may not be redistributed (obviously this means something on the order of an entire DL — not a few files here and there from it). This, to me, is the only sane policy. It allows the author who does not want further distribution of his work some sort of protection and reassures the author who does. Of course, there are many legal grey areas here. The current copyright law (The 1976 ammendment to it) does not have a provision for an author to 'abandon' his rights. If an author explicitly places his work in the 'public domain' the law does not recognize such a fact — in the eyes of the copyright law, the author still has all rights to his work. The only way a program can be put in the public domain is for it have expired from the time protection.