Copyright

[DCMagnuson at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/2/99 10:27:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
chordman at flash.net writes:

> Only the courts can give relief in a case of stolen intellectual
>  property.  In the US, the most important point to make in court
>  is that you prove that you had the idea and documented it first.
>  Here, the proof is simple.  As soon as you have it on paper, you
>  mail it to yourself and don't open the envelope.  The courts
>  regard the US Post Office date stamp as the final word.  I think
>  that if any of us feel that we have an idea that some unscrupulous
>  person might steal, we should at least do the self mail.  I would
>  imagine that this is more common in the world than just the US.
>  

This topic of "mail yourself a letter" as a copyright has come up several 
times on the Rec.Audio.Pro and Alt.Music.4-track newsgroups regarding music 
copyrights.  

>From the general response of people on these lists, this is *not* a good 
legal defense.  No one could give a specific case where this defense held up 
in a US court.   The only definite protection is to get a tried and true US 
copyright.  

If you could provide an actual legal case to support this claim, that would 
be great.  Personally, I'd *rather* just mail myself a copy of my CDs than go 
through the process of sending in a copyright form.

I'm not trying to badmouth the original poster, I just don't want anyone to 
lose a court case by trying a faulty defense.   Perhaps intellectual property 
is treated differnent than music when copyrights are concerned, so I could be 
wrong.

Dave Magnuson
Independent Music Site
http://www.indiemusicsite.com