You may be well served by checking the Federal copywrite website. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
Tom ----- Original Message ----- From: John Engwer To: RBASE-L Mailing List Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:08 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Code copywrite Jan, I don't believe you can legally use the copyright symbol (C with a circle around it) unless the copyright has been formally registered with the US government. I think you can use the "C" without the circle to imply that a copyright is pending. When I install my software at a clients location, I stipulate that they have a license to use the software but they do not own the code. John From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of jan johansen Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:28 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Code copywrite Group, Looking for some insights from people. I recently placed a copy of 7.6 on my clients server so they would feel better about "if something happened to me" someone else could pick up the pieces. They found what I have been placing in my rmd's at the top: -- Title: PurchaseRecon.rmd -- Comment: replaces old reconpur.cmd -- Created: Sep 2007 -- Author: Jan D. Johansen -- Copyright © 2007 Dane Data Systems -- Last Update -- Uses Forms: PurchReconSelect,reconpur Now they are upset because they thought they owned the code. In this case the code is somewhat hybrid. The original code was in 4.5 ++ (I think) and I have "borrowed" sections of the original code during the upgrade. I have found traces of at least 3 other people in the original. Of course I have rewritten sections and supplanted with my own and borrowed from other people on the list. The header was placed mainly as an afterthought in the rmd's without much thought to what it implied. So now - who owns the code? Is it the intellectual property of the developer or since the client pays you for your services is it his? I know I should have spelled this out in an agreement but didn't think I would run into anything like this (there I go thinking again). Any thoughts/comments greatly appreciated in advance (I'm offline for about 10 hours after I hit the send). Jan
