In article <b2tmnl$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Gervase Markham wrote: >> oh yes it is. the copyright symbol has legal force, (c) doesn't. but the >> word "copyright" also has legal force, so just having the word is fine. >> it all varies from country to country... > > As far as I know, it doesn't (well, apart from about 2 obscure islands > somewhere in the Pacific.) Everyone else signed the Berne convention in > the 1970s, which harmonised world copyright law and made everything > copyright by default, whether you use (C) or not.
the Berne convention sets out some international stuff, but each country still has their own laws as well... an obvious example being the DMCA, which thankfully doesn't apply internationally... and I wasn't disagreeing that everything is copyright by default, just saying that it's not true that it makes no difference whether you have the notice: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.html "The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, although it is often beneficial... Use of the notice may be important because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. Furthermore, in the event that a work is infringed, if the work carries a proper notice, the court will not give any weight to a defendant.s interposition of an innocent infringement defense.that is, that he or she did not realize that the work was protected. An innocent infringement defense may result in a reduction in damages that the copyright owner would otherwise receive." http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html and http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/indetail/copyclaim.htm "# Do I have to mark my work to claim copyright? Although a few countries require that a work be marked with the international mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication, this is not essential in most countries, including the UK. However, marking in this way may assist in infringement proceedings." -- Michael
