[thelist] Re: Logo design...

[Stephen Rider]

For those interested in copyright law as pertains to web design:

If you're in the USA, you might find this book from Nolo Law useful --
<http://tinyurl.com/6abhp>

Also:
On Jan 27, 2005, at 8:05 PM, Viveka Weiley wrote:

> Trademarks have the special quality that they must also be defended.
> If another Giant Octopus web design starts up and you don't tell them
> to stop infringing your registered trade mark quick smart, then you
> could lose it. This is *not* the case for copyrights, and I don't know
> if it is for patents.

FYI -- it seems this can apply to copyright as well.  An anecdotal 
story, to be sure, but...  I know a person who writes fiction on a 
mailing list.  At one point he was tying his work into an established 
professional author's world (that of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, if it 
matters to you).  At some point, he actually met Ms. Yarbro and as soon 
as she became aware of what he had done, she asked him to remove all 
references to her work.  The argument was effectively that she _had_ to 
ask him to remove it, or lose protection of her characters.  Someone 
who came along later and infringed her copyrights could point to her 
knowing about the earlier fan fiction and not stopping it as a legal 
argument that since she had knowingly not blocked such infringement 
before, she had given up the right to do so later.

Apparently, in an earlier case, some people had asked her for 
permission to use her characters, and for the same reasons, she said 
"No".  They then went ahead and used the characters, and because she 
had already said no, she _had_ to sue them for damages or set the 
precedent of non-copyright-enforcement.

I believe her other option is to look the other way and pretend not to 
notice it, but once they had asked her permission and gotten an answer, 
that was no longer an option.

Obviously I don't know the specific legal terminology, but the meaning 
is pretty clear.

Steve Rider
...is not a lawyer