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Subject:Re: Is your documentation copyrighted? From:"Rebecca Downey" <rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 26 Jan 2000 09:09:43 -0500
In Canada the rules differ from those in the US. Fortunately both countries
havea lot of information on the Web. Some important sites on Copyright in
Canada are:
http://cipo.gc.ca/ - The Canadian Intellectual Property Office is
responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of
Intellectual Property in Canada.
http://www.cancopy.com/ The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, a
reproduction rights organisation (RRO), provides legal access to
copyright-protected works for millions of Canadian copyright users.
http://www.pubcouncil.ca/ The Council represents the Canadian publishing
community on the international level in the International Publishers
Association and is a member of the International Federation of Reprographic
Rights Organizations. This site has a great bunch of links in regards to
Intellectual Property in Cananda.
If you are interested in Copyrighting something in Canada, I'd recommend you
visit the above mentioned sites to see how it's done. In Canada copyright
_usually_ lasts for the lifespan of the author +50 years (there are
exceptions).
The documents and help systems provided in Matrox Networks products do bear
a copyright symbol and a date, but they have never been registered. So yes,
they are all copyrighted. Our legal department is of the opinion that there
is no need to copyright the documents, as they would only act if someone
stole our hardware/software ideas.
--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
R. Downey
Matrox Electronics System (Networks Division)
1055 St-Regis Dorval, Quebec Canada, H9P 2T4
Email: rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com
Web : http://www.matrox.com/networks
