(C) yyyy Joerg Schilling (was: Re: your mail) (fwd)

[kim2 at bruning.demon.nl]

On 26 Jan 2002, Alex Hudson wrote:

> On Fri, 2002-01-25 at 22:24, Florian Weimer wrote:
> > I don't think that in German law, you have to claim copyright in order
> > to have it.  Quite the contrary---you can't get rid of it even if you
> > want to.
>
> Same here (UK) - copyright automatically belongs to the author (unless
> this is changed under a contract - for example, if you're an employee of
> a software company). However, in the UK you're allowed to buy and sell
> copyright like any other commodity.

That's logical. Different countries have slightly different laws on this.
Since your free software programme is likely to be distributed to the
ends of the earth, it's always better to be safe than sorry IMHO. :-)

> I think MJR is right with regards the (C) thing - you're supposed to
> write out the whole thing if you can't do a proper circle around it,
> i.e. Copyright XXXX The Author

Right. I stand corrected there.

So: Even if you *don't* have any copyright notice in your source code, you
may still be able to sue these people. It just gets better and better. :-P

I do think it makes life a bit easier if there is a Copyright yyyy
Joerg Shilling in there. If only because you can just print your source,
go to the judge and point: "Look! A Copyright Notice!". ;-)

It also makes things entirely clear to people who use your code. This is a
Good Thing. (As an example: I still can't use a certain java system,
because the authors haven't clarified their copyright position to me.)

With that correction, read back what else I wrote in that last mail.
AFAIK application of GPL still applies as written.

in the hope this is useful,
	read you soon,
		Kim "Now correcter than ever!" Bruning