[thelist] Copyright "rules"

[Andrew Kamm]

> Thanks, but I am not certain that addresses what is considered to be the
> appropriate placedment of a standard copyright (c) <year / year-range> on
> the inside of an applicaiton or any sort of standardization around that.
> 
> It certainly does for Creative Commons and their own tools, but I'm
> looking for specific usage of the US Copyright.  It seems that there
> should be sort of usage rules for "how" to display a copyright so that
> every time a developer outputs a final build of an application (non-web),
> that an item on a checklist says to ensure that the copyright is <current
> year> or <start year - current year> or something similar.
> 
> Perhaps I'm being dense and not seeing it?


I have more experience with music copyright than with software, but I'm
quite sure your last sentence was right on point. Looking at the load screen
for PhotoShop, I see "copyright 1990 - 2003" (or whatever). Presumably,
Adobe is saying "Hey, we created this in 1990, and we've had various
versions of this since then."

Unless you did the work as work for hire (i.e., the client owns it per your
contract), you own the copyright and how you declare it is almost
irrelevant. Indeed, it's good idea to though, to make sure people don't
decide your app is open source, etc.

There's probably an official Copyright process for computer apps that goes
thru the Library of Congress (music and similar works have this process),
but not registering a work with the LOC does not mean you don't own the
copyright. However, if you attempt litigation against an infringer, you
typically have to have a work registered prior to pursuing the case.

HTH, Andy  

-- 
Andrew Kamm