Re: (ET) Sharing of Documents etc. - copyright laws ?

[Jeremy Gagliardi com]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:53:50 -0400, Pieter wrote:
> Actually, I THINK you must display a "copyright" notice to have a legal 
> copyright.

Nope.  I just published a book.  You do not need to display anything of a 
legal
nature on or inside your material to retain copyright privileges.  Once a 
book
or manual is published, that printing, in whole or in part is automatically
copyrighted by the original author(s) (as long as its original).  
Registered
trademarks are another issue.  You must file with the Patent & Trademark 
office
for the specific arrangement of words, the art, or the arrangment.  I did 
that
too.

In short, the copyright notice inside the cover of a book is just a huge
formality and a nicety by the publisher to give every reader a sense of the
legality of copying the work.

Also, publishers and print shops will assume a copyright on anything they 
will
output, regardless of legal notices either present or not.  They will 
always
tell you to seek permission form the author(s) before using the material.  
Say
you take the ET owner's manual to your local Kinko's and order up 100 
copies. 
They will say, "uh, sir, do you have permission from the publisher to copy 
this
work?"


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