Copyrights

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Cheryl Kidder wondered what information is required to
 establish copyright. According to the Canadian government's
 Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the simple act of
 publishing provides you with copyright. Adding the (C)
 symbol and the word "copyright" to your notice grants you
 certain rights to damages in a lawsuit; without this, you
 can prevent infringement, but not obtain certain statutory
 damages (i.e., fines).

 The symbol (C) is not required, but it is traditional; it's
 the presence of the word "copyright", followed by a date
 and the name of whoever is claiming the copyright, that is
 crucial. As for where you need to put the notice, and how
 often it should occur, once per _printed_ document
 suffices. For online information, the situation is more
 complex; I'd assume (following the same logic as for print)
 that _every_ discrete package of information (e.g., each
 file if you have more than one, plus the software itself)
 should have a single copyright notice. Most software does
 this by displaying the information on the splash screen
 that appears while the software is launching (i.e., where
 users can't miss it easily).

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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