[thelist] RE: [thelist] © of JavaScript code

David.Cantrell at Gunter.AF.mil David.Cantrell at Gunter.AF.mil
Mon Sep 9 08:29:01 CDT 2002


>What is the importance of such copyright notice in  JS code when it is
easily
>readable for anybody with the knowledge of JS?

Easily readable? So is everything else you read, from newspapers to books to
magazines to web sites to the e-mail you sent. Anything you write is
generally considered automatically copyrighted, but I believe there are also
exceptions. Best to make it explicit.

>Are there any laws to protect the rights of JS code?

I'm not sure if courts have yet ruled that code is considered a form of
speech (someone please correct me if I'm wrong - I want to be wrong), but
I'm pretty sure we signed on to a (generally horrible) treaty (can't
remember the name) with the World Intellectual Property Organization a few
years back and among it's statements was an assertion that database schemas
are intellectual property and therefore copyrightable, so I would assume
code could be considered in this case as well. Both are merely descriptions
of data structures... :)

Whether anybody actually follows your copyright is debatable. I believe most
honest people will. Can you enforce it? Again, debatable. It requires you
actually knowing someone is violating it. In this respect I believe it's
more like trademark protections, i.e. you won't have a state prosecutor
calling you up because he is prosecuting someone for using your code.

NOTE: I'm no lawyer, but I can give free advice and it's worth every penny!
:)

HTH,
-dave



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