andrel <byt### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> On 4-8-2012 6:02, waggy wrote:
> > I must also deliver an electronic copy to a commercial online publisher to make
> > available through their private (paid) service. Registering a copyright and
> > providing open access are add-on costs for the author.
>
> I thought that even the USA had gone over to the sensible system that
> everything one writes is automatically copyrighted.
>
> > I'll shell out the bucks for the copyright since my thesis has immediate
> > commercial applications and I don't want one company monopolizing it.
>
> I don't see how a copyright could help here. A patent might, but a
> copyright just protects the wording, not the idea. You could prevent a
> company to get a patent because of prior art. But as the thesis is an
> official document with a date, you don't need a copyright either.
>
I am presuming that if I don't register the copyright, the commercial publisher
will do so.  I hope that by holding the copyright, and paying the service for
open access, it might make it more difficult for them to enforce a
cease-and-desist if I choose to post my own thesis to my own website.

I did ask an expert (though not a lawywer) about this, who informed me that it
does help to register the copyright.  Also, my advisor has consulted with IP
lawyers who work for this public institution, and they have filed legal claims
to these ideas on our behalf.  The University of Texas system also has plenty of
legal precedent set in favor of the student on matters of who owns the research
done in pursuit of a thesis or dissertation.

[snip]
> Somehow I think you do not understand the reasons behind modern
> research. Employing someone to do research is mainly because otherwise
> the statistics look bad. When researchers do actually research they
> spends money on top of their salary. To cut the costs it is important to
> prevent that.
>
Most of the research our lab does is extremely cheap, largely because of Moore's
Law.  I learned quickly to send my advisor plenty of pretty pictures that can be
used in presentations to solicit more research funding.  We also get sent to
conferences and meetings to do this ourselves.  (I rather suck at this part.)

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