Copyright

[Harry Bissell]

Don't do the "mail yourself a copy" trick. It may serve to establish a date of
creation or evidence of an original idea... BUT a real COPYRIGHT establishes a
legal right to recover specified damages for infringement. The copyright is
downright cheap in this regard. And if you wanted to, you could copyright a
collection of works... ie schematics, pcb art... etc. I don't know how much the
fee is (been a while) I think it is $25 to $30 dollars.  You need the full
protection of a copyright in order to ever see any $$$ from an infringing party.

I'm not a lawyer either, but this is my understanding of the situation.

:^) Harry

Scott Gravenhorst wrote:

> I got this out of a book on publishing music.  The book suggested
> sending a tape to yourself in the mail.  I also read another
> book on publishing software which suggested the same thing, only
> using a printout of the source.
>
> I cannot produce a court case, however, I have read the same thing
> in two different books on publishing.
>
> I apologize for not disclaiming the fact that I am not an
> attorney.
>
> DCMagnuson at aol.com wrote:
> >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
> >
>
> -- Scott Gravenhorst                    | Linux Rex, Linux Vobiscum
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