Re: Computer rights

["Ridder, Fred" <F -dot- Ridder -at- DIALOGIC -dot- COM>]

Smokey Lynne L Bare wrote (in part):

>That is, the Copyright symbol, the year, and the author's name. The
form for registering
>the work can be obtained from the national Copyright office. There is a
small fee for
>doing this. You don't have to file the form before you publish the
work,
>as long as the notice is on it (much like the statement  - patent
pending).

I have no disagreement with what you say about copyrights, but I must
take
issue with your parenthetical comment about the "patent pending"
statement.
A patent can only be pending if it has been applied for; until/unless
you file a
patent application, you are *not* entitled to use the patent pending
statement.
And if your patent application is rejected, you must remove the
statement
from your product and publications as soon as practical, because the
application
is no longer pending.  [If the patent application is approved, on the
other hand,
the pending notice gets replaced with one stating "patented" or "patent
issued"
or even giving the patent number(s).]

Fred Ridder  (mailto:f -dot- ridder -at- dialogic -dot- com)
Senior Technical Writer
Dialogic Corporation, Parsippany, NJ

And to keep our marketing people happy:
Get the Dialogic Edge at:  http://www.dialogic.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Smokey Lynne L Bare [SMTP:slbare -at- JUNO -dot- COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 1997 3:15 PM
> Subject:      Computer rights
>
> .....for your approval...
>
>
> Any publication of a work (before it is protected under the copyright
> law)
> makes it *public domain*. This means both sending it out on the
> Internet,
> and/or
> copying it for people to read on paper.  (Case in point - copy
> machines
> in libraries.)  The correct thing to do is to put a Copyright notice
> on
> the work EACH and EVERY time it is published.
>
> That is, the Copyright symbol, the year, and the author's name. The
> form
> for registering
> the work can be obtained from the national Copyright office. There is
> a
> small fee for
> doing this. You don't have to file the form before you publish the
> work,
> as long as the notice is on it (much like the statement  - patent
> pending).
>
> The second problem is the Internet itself. Once something is published
> on
> it, it is very hard to monitor what happens to it.  It is possible
> someone else could use it even though there is a Copyright notice on
> it.
>
> An attorney I work with (specializing in symbol-marked materials and
> writer contracts) suggests writers follow procedures using the
> copyright
> rules, but to consider publishing the article (on the net) for the
> purpose of becoming recognized as an authority in a field, or as
> a good writer.  Basically, writers need to recognize that protecting
> it
> once it is out there is a very, very time consuming and costly
> venture.
>
>
>
> live from the frozen bare's den.......
>
> Smokey

	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/