"gonzo" <rgo### [at] lansetcom> wrote in news:40495517@news.povray.org:

> 
> That has no legal weight though, because if someone else tries to
> claim your work, your notice means nothing unless you have registered
> that notice with the Library of Congress' copyright office.  
> 
> 

Close.  It does have weight, just not as much, making the required burden 
of proof greater, and the potential damages substantially less.  

http://www.zernerlaw.com/articles/copyrightbenefits1.htm

Registration is still required, prior to bring a suit.


-- 
Tom
_________________________________
The Internet Movie Project
http://www.imp.org/

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I don't know if it would work in tribunals, but technically for images 
of which you didn't release the source code, you have a mean to show 
that you are the owner, by showing an Higher resolution image for 
example which the other guy wouldn't be able to do.

JC


> In article <4048fb4a@news.povray.org>,
>  "Gilles Tran" <gitran_nospam_@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Dear POVers
> 
> 
> [.../...]
> 
> 
>>G.
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to cash in on this opportunity to ask what is the legal status 
> of the "Copyright". I often see artists who append a copyright to their 
> images (which of course is justified), but does it has a real 
> signification ? Don't we need to register on an official organism which 
> would vouch for the autenticity of the work ? Is it enough to write 
> "copyright" and your name to make it your intellectual property ?
> 
> I had troubles wandering on the web to find these informations.
> 
> Thanks,



-- 
http://exether.free.fr/irtc (more IRTC stats !)

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> The generally-quoted web page simplifying copyright is
> http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

  There's a clear contradiction between that site and
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6225

  The former says:

 "Nothing modern is in the public domain anymore unless the owner
explicitly puts it in the public domain"

  The latter says:

  "There is nothing that permits the dumping of copyrighted works          
into the public domain"

  (That is, there exists no legal mechanism by which you can get rid
of the copyright of a work: Someone will always own it, no matter what
they say, until it expires.)

-- 
#macro M(A,N,D,L)plane{-z,-9pigment{mandel L*9translate N color_map{[0rgb x]
[1rgb 9]}scale<D,D*3D>*1e3}rotate y*A*8}#end M(-3<1.206434.28623>70,7)M(
-1<.7438.1795>1,20)M(1<.77595.13699>30,20)M(3<.75923.07145>80,99)// - Warp -

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news:noe.falzonPASDEPUB-8722E0.03475606032004@news.povray.org...
> I had troubles wandering on the web to find these informations.
>

I've found http://creativecommons.org/ to be quite useful in this regard.

Cheers,
Ian

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Glad to hear it is all settled, Gilles.  For all the wonderful includes that
you have
done and made available to us, it's very sad to see this sort of thing going
on.

Now if I could only get good enough to where somebody would want to steal an
image of mine.    ;-)

Michael

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IIRC in the netherlnds copyrights are automatic on everything
you write (you do not even have to put a copyright notice in
like in the US). I think it is the same for images, but am not
sure. Because POV is a script language I at least own all source
for the images I make. At least in the Netherlands. If I leave
out a copyright notice someone in the US can use it without
my permission, untill the time he takes his laptop on a
holiday to to amsterdam.
	Andrel



> In article <4048fb4a@news.povray.org>,
>  "Gilles Tran" <gitran_nospam_@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Dear POVers
> 
> 
> [.../...]
> 
> 
>>G.
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to cash in on this opportunity to ask what is the legal status 
> of the "Copyright". I often see artists who append a copyright to their 
> images (which of course is justified), but does it has a real 
> signification ? Don't we need to register on an official organism which 
> would vouch for the autenticity of the work ? Is it enough to write 
> "copyright" and your name to make it your intellectual property ?
> 
> I had troubles wandering on the web to find these informations.
> 
> Thanks,

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:


>> I'd like to cash in on this opportunity to ask what is the legal status
>> of the "Copyright".
> 
> It depends on the country, but many are similar.
> 
> The generally-quoted web page simplifying copyright is
> http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
> 
>
 
How might that apply to image maps etc.? I'm thinking particularily
of planetary maps that we might use to render planets with uv-mapping.

-- 
Bill Hails

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http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3C4032d2a3%241%40news.povray.org%3E/?ttop=185056&toff=50

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Warp wrote:

>   There's a clear contradiction between that site and
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6225
> 
>   The former says:
> 
>  "Nothing modern is in the public domain anymore unless the owner
> explicitly puts it in the public domain"
> 
>   The latter says:
> 
>   "There is nothing that permits the dumping of copyrighted works          
> into the public domain"
> 
>   (That is, there exists no legal mechanism by which you can get rid
> of the copyright of a work: Someone will always own it, no matter what
> they say, until it expires.)


This is probably a mix up of different part of what copyright means.

If you create something, you own all the rights to it. Some of these
rights can be signed away, for example the right to make copies or to
use that work in some way. You can sell them, or you can just say "I
don't care, use it any way you want." This is meant by donating works to
the public domain. Sometimes there are conditions for the free use, for
example in Gnu Copyleft that any derivative work must also be donated to
the public domain, and that the author retains the right to be
identified as author.

However, even if you donate some work to the public domain, you can not
undo the fact that you created the work and published it. In that sense
you allways retain the copyright.

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> I'd like to cash in on this opportunity to ask what is the legal status 
> of the "Copyright". I often see artists who append a copyright to their 
> images (which of course is justified), but does it has a real 
> signification ? Don't we need to register on an official organism which 
> would vouch for the autenticity of the work ? Is it enough to write 
> "copyright" and your name to make it your intellectual property ?

According to international conventions (which have to be transfered into
national law by the signatory states) you own the copyright of anything
you create and publish, without any further measures. 

However, a copyright notice makes it clear that you have not waived
those rights. It usually also contains the date of creation, which can
be important. They give anybody who wants to use that work at least some
chance to contact you about agreements on the conditions.

If you do not include a copyright statement your ability to litigate for
compensation in case of infringement may be limitted (depending on
national law) as the infractor may claim good faith. You would however
still have the right to demand that the infractor stops using your work.

Registration of copyright used to give you additional litigation
possibilities in the US, I am not sure whether or not that is still the
case.

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