RE: Two questions about Copyright notices

["Robart, Kay" <Kay -dot- Robart -at- tea -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us>]

OK, it would have been more accurate to say, "before it is created," but
since I was copyrighting software materials, we used the published date,
since the term of the work isn't that long (as compared to a novel, for
example) and it's a lot harder to proved when you got the idea.

 

From: Fred Ridder [mailto:docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 4:17 PM
To: Robart, Kay; kevin -dot- mclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com;
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Two questions about Copyright notices

 

Kay Robart wrote:
 
> The changes between years have to be significant to claim a new
> copyright date, not just a few punctuation marks, and it is against
the
> law to claim a copyright before the document has been published. 

Sorry, but this latter assertion is not correct. Copyright rights begin
as soon as the creator's idea is committed to some tangible form. It is
the act of writing (drawing, painting, photographing, taping,
performing, etc.) rather than the event of publishing that starts the
clock. And it is not criminally illegal to claim copyright protection
from a earlier date than the item was written, although it can
invalidate some of the creator's rights if anyone brings a civil action
to contest the copyright. Besides, falsifying the date in the prior
direction is more an issue with patents and trademarks than with
copyright, since copyright is not an exclusive use right (i.e. it's not
about who owns the idea) but rather is about who has the right to make
and disseminate copies of a work and profit from doing so.  
 
Fred Ridder

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