Copyright

[PsyVision]

Hi There,

I would like to go about getting a copyright for something but do not know of how to do it. Im in one country but to make the copyright apply in other countries do i have to pay more ? Does it cost much at all ?

Thanks.

Look in your phone book for a lawyer. He should have the answers to your questions.

On a related topic, you can view this article from VB-World.
http://www.vb-world.net/articles/legal/

[Neilbaker86]

You can apply a copyright to anything for free, as long as its your work.

Its only trademarks and registrations you need to pay and register for, I put a copyright notice on everything I do.

you are just purely saying, this content (not idea, ides are called patent designs) belongs to me, if you copy it or pass it off as yours you will be breaking the law.

[Mc Brain]

Originally posted by
Look in your phone book for a lawyer. He should have the answers to your questions.

On a related topic, you can view this article from VB-World.
http://www.vb-world.net/articles/legal/

I have a question about this:

Stupid Things To NOT Do

• Don't register anything if you are using pirated software yourself!
• Don't register any trademarks that already exists. You might end up in a 8 year lawsuit with a mighty fine that will make you sell your house and office!
• Don't patent anything unless you're 100% sure it is appropriate patent (example: GetRight patented its technology of resumable downloads because it was unique technology)
• Don't go around registering and enforcing laws on people without a legal counselor beside you. One must be hired before and not after filing a lawsuit!
• And for you extremists, don't ever go as your own legal representative! Just read a John Grisham book instead!

About the first item... does that mean that you shall not add any "Copyright © %Year% %Your_Name%. All Rights Reserved." in your soft? Or just not to go to any office to get the legal papers of registration??

[John McKernan]

Speaking from the standpoint of United States copyright law:

You are automatically granted a copyright by virtue of having written the software. What that means is that you are perfectly within your rights to add a copyright caption to your work. Whether or not that copyright is enforceable without registration is a different issue. Without registering the copyright, you can enforce it to a degree - assuming you are in fact the author, you can force someone to offering your work as their own, but without registration, obtaining a monetary judgement for damages is very difficult.

In any event, attempting to enforce a copyright (registered or not) is a time-consuming and surprisingly expensive process. This is not something that is handled (adequately) by your local attorney, it usually involves a specialty of law, with the associated high hourly fees.

Generally speaking, countries acknowledge the registered copyrights of other countries. Whether or not they recognize an unregistered copyright would probably vary for locale to locale.

McBrain: I would say, first, if any part of an app uses pirated components, it would be a very foolish thing to attempt to register the copyright or even simply add the caption to your app. If the app is entirely original, but developed using pirated software, registering the copyright would certainly be risky, simply adding the copyright would likely have little effect. Whether an app bears a copyright caption or not, if it was developed using pirated products, the copyright holder of those products is well within their rights to prosecute.

[Appaq]

ok! i have read all the posts! i am asking now... (i am from Romania)! If the MS VBx.x in my country costs more than 1000$, and my salary is 80$, that meens i cant make software and i cant sale it?! This is not faire! I think the right way of MS is to distribuiti the VB (and all thei languges of programing) freware and tu put a percent for the sale of the software of producers! (here thats the best way, no one from here as individual programmer doesnt have a legal copy of MS software, indiferent if is OS or P. Languages)!

[FlashX]

if your concerned about copright etc in other parts of the world. do a search on 'International Copyrite Law' - i think it covers you accross the whole world. - check it out.

[John McKernan]

Originally posted by Appaq
ok! i have read all the posts! i am asking now... (i am from Romania)! If the MS VBx.x in my country costs more than 1000$, and my salary is 80$, that meens i cant make software and i cant sale it?! This is not faire! I think the right way of MS is to distribuiti the VB (and all thei languges of programing) freware and tu put a percent for the sale of the software of producers! (here thats the best way, no one from here as individual programmer doesnt have a legal copy of MS software, indiferent if is OS or P. Languages)!

Well, that certainly is a problem and not only in Romania. I think, however, that all software developers are fortunate that Microsoft does not do business as you would suggest. The sad fact is, that would cost considerably more than the current method. Besides, there would be significant legal problems.

I am sorry to say that, unfortunately, business is not fair, as you have already discovered. In business, the simple fact is: it takes money to make money.

[Phade]

You know....I wonder if you can trademark/copyright the word "THE" ...he would be a rich man..rich...

[Mc Brain]

So if my app were written with a pirated copy of Visual Studio I shall not "post" the "Copyright © %Year% %Your_Name%. All Rights Reserved." label?

[-=R0ckAw4Y=-]

this case is explained above
if i got i right the you can put the (c)opyleft but the V$-VB used to do it is illegal and you can therefore be blamed
right?

it's interesting all what can be heard by going thru forums but like someone said above "you must give money to make money" --> but M$ wants to get more money for products becoming less good (there not realy less good, but someone told me that if you don't get forward, you go backwart for sure <-- translation's not quite good, but maybe someone can reformulate this)
what i mean is in an example: what was the difference between Win95, 98 and Me? - some little bugfixes! and the price differece? it rose a little bit BUT those are 3 full programms so for some bugfixes you had to pay 3x the programm (or take the update versions, with suck anyway)

<-- is this you? sorry if u didn't get it, i just got up

[John McKernan]

Originally posted by Mc Brain
So if my app were written with a pirated copy of Visual Studio I shall not "post" the "Copyright © %Year% %Your_Name%. All Rights Reserved." label?

Like I said, just leaving off the copyright caption by no means makes you safe. Just a little harder to catch.

[DiGiTaIErRoR]

You get copyright by claiming it, a registered copyright is ®, but you can freely claim any creation of yours © by you, and the year.

The format is simple.

Copyright © <name> <year>

Registering it makes it easier to prosecute for infringment though.

[Mc Brain]

Originally posted by John McKernan
Like I said, just leaving off the copyright caption by no means makes you safe. Just a little harder to catch.

Why do you say that is a little harder to catch? If your name is in the about box (even without the copyright label) they can also track you down. What's the "extra" value of that label?

[Franky]

As others already said means copyright nothing else as "It is my product and I have the rights to allow/refuse that you copy it". Trademarks, Registers, Patents are different. It is for a private person very difficult to fight against a big company, even if you have a copyright on your software. It is of course allowed to use the copyright on your product EVEN if you use pirate software to create it AND the product is still yours whatever microsoft etc. says .....

I am owner of some patents and can tell you that it is many times not worth to do it ..... and you can't believe what's allready patented, hehe. I think that generally copyright your software is enough. If you want to go a safe way then write a cd with your software and send it via registered mail to yourself and don't open the mail when you get it. So you can show later that you wrote this software before that date. It is a accepted way even from courts.

For people in countries with low income: There are usually big companies like siemens etc. This companies have software devision. Go with your product to them and just ask them that they allow you to compile your program with their licence until you got your own licence. It is a gray area of law and not clear that somebody can sue you for this. Many of this big companies do this if you have a interesting product.

If you want to make a patent for something and you have no money then just go to the patent office and ask for a form. Then go home and fill the form, but make on purpose some mistakes, so the office will write you after some weeks back that you made some mistakes. You have usually 6 months time to correct this mistakes BUT the idea of your patent is allready protected. If you find out n this 6 month that it is not worth it or allready existing you do nothing. The price to register a patent is usually very cheap, around 50 USD.
You can safe a lot of money by checking the patents and the internet by yourself to find out that your idea exist allready. If you found something that is near then read the footnotes, there are usually patent numbrs from other patents that attacked the current patent. Just follow this notes and you will find out that you idea exist. The staff from the patent office or students who are working for lawyers in this office are helping for sure.

Franky

[John McKernan]

Originally posted by Mc Brain
Why do you say that is a little harder to catch? If your name is in the about box (even without the copyright label) they can also track you down. What's the "extra" value of that label?

Should have been more precise, sorry. You are correct, of course, it would only be harder if you left all identifying information out of your program. That, of course, would be a bad marketing idea.

As has been discussed, without registering your copyright, it is actually of questionable value. If you can't defend that copyright, because of pirated development software, components, etc, then it is of no real value. As we all know, that caption really does not deter someone from pirating your software. However, a case can be made for the copyright caption lending a little professionalism and credibility to your work. To many, it looks impressive - thus is good marketing.

[PuterFreak]

http://www.copyright.gov/register/literary.html

[omodara]

If you want to claim a copyright of ur software it is a good Idea only make sure that the tools u used is not a pirated one and that u have a legal backing

Love & Live

[chicocouk]

Kinda interesting, but I'm struggling to see how anyone could establish you built software with a pirated copy of visual studio, and would catch you, just because you put a copyright notice on your program ... seems a bit unlikely

As for changes in 95/98/Me, in a market economy, if you don't think you're getting any improvements in a new software version, you don't have to buy it. So just don't. Any do without USB support, plug and play capabilities, AGP support, internet connection sharing etc. That said, Win Me is iredeemably awful.

As for patents, they're mainly all already gone, html linking is supposedly owned by BT (or so they say), Jpegs are patented, jeez, someone's even patented a method of swinging on a swing:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...&RS=PN/6368227