CompuServe Messages

#CompuS Copyright

#: 35825 S/Help/AnnouncementsForum unknown
    09-Oct-86 22:51:34
Fm: Dan Moore 74035,243
To: Roger F. Becker 71426,1053

This message turned up in search, but its forum couldn’t be identified from the original transcript, so it may not be linked into its thread.

Who says you have to send the money to the Copyright Office in order to have a copyright????? That is _NOT_ what the law says. All registering with the Copyright Office does is provide legal proof of the starting date of the Copyright. Not filing does not in any way remove (or prevent) the copyright on the work. I see no contradiction at all in CIS claiming an anthology copyright on the DLs. That is not at all the same as what your 100 PD disks are. Do you have a disk catalog and description of each file? If you do then the two cases are similar, if you don't they aren't. Who said the author didn't retain CIS to protect his copyright? Not having talked to author neither one of us is in a position to say whether he did or didn't. If you go check on MAUG (where a lot of the file came from) you will find a lot of programs uploaded by Apple as official updates to system software. For these files Apple has a contract with MAUG to distribute these files (MAUG is the only legal electronic distribution source). If any of these files were involved (I don't know, I only saw a very limited part of Sande's BBS so I can't say for sure) then CIS (as the represenative of MAUG) had a very definite right to do something. You sure seem convinced that CIS is just a big guy picking on a little guy. Have you every considered that CIS is being picked on since they are number one? (This is just a valid a claim as the one you made.)