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(January 1993)
 

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Subject: copyrights in messages
From: I Bleed Teal <chuq @ apple . com>
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 12:33:12 -0800
To: list-managers @ GreatCircle . COM


Excuse me for butting in in the middle of a topic, but I wasn't following
it closely until the copyright issue came up.

Be VERY careful when mucking around with copyrights. It's a great way to get
yourself in yogurt. 

>the point is that the string "Copyright 1991/92
>Anastasios Kotsikonas" is being attached to any message sent through a
>UNIX Listserv, and it's wrong

If that's what being done, then it very definitely IS wrong, because what is
being done on a legal level is that Anastasios is claiming copyright of the
contents of the message. That's incorrect from the point of view of what
he's TRYING to do (which is claim his copyright to the program being used),
but even worse, on a strictly legal sense he's usurping the copyright from
the owner (the person who wrote the message in the first place, which has an
implicit copyright extant because of the Berne convention). That's not only
wrong, but blatantly illegal, and it puts Anastasios at potential legal
liability if someone decided to get snarky and involve lawyers.

The best advice I have about copyright: don't screw around with it unless
you've done your homework. It doesn't matter what your INTENT is, but how
the law is structured, and you can do real harm to yourself by not
understanding the implications of a very complex legal construct like
copyright. 

Chuq



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