On 10/11/07, Ray P <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There is a good reason. There are two types of copyrights in the US: > implicit and registered. For a long time now, a work receives an implicit > copyright at the instant it is created. If someone violates an implicit > copyright, the owner's only legal recourse is to go to court and get an > order to stop the infringing use. Zero dollar damages. >
I know a little about copyright law. While it is true you can get statutory damages if the work is registered before any infringement occurs, you can still get actual damages and profit if you didn't register before the infringement. The copyright fee used to be $20 per. I believe it's $45 now. > Imagine if you couldn't send an email until the contents had been filed, > fee paid and a registration document received. Not only would email get > really expensive, it wouldn't be very timely. :-) If you file within three months after creation, you can still get statutory damages, even if the infringement occurs before you filed. That gives you the ability to publish immediately, then file later if you need to. Though it would be expensive to pre-register all your emails. <g> If an email is forwarded and it causes actual damages, you may be able to recover those damages in court, even without a copyright notice. However, a notice would make it more likely that you'll win.
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