Re: Intellectual Property

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

gary l meyers wrote:

> My comments were not an opinion I quoted them from Copyright Law


Copyright Law, like most laws, is in several places. The original statute is 
only one. Government web pages are another, often different, source. 
Subsequent court decisions may modify, clarify or repeal all or some the 
words in the written statute. Many laws are even rewritten in the Federal 
Register, where Congress has tended to abandon its responsibilities and let 
the regulators write their own full-employment laws. Each state usually has 
something to say, and the 9th and 10th Amendments are frequently ignored by 
Federal Courts. The law is what the court tells you it is, once you have 
exhausted all appeals, and certainly *not* the written statute or a 
bureaucrat-serving web page.

After serving as Assistant Patent Engineer for the Stanford University 
Electronics Labs, and after over 30 years of running a small 
manufacturing/R&D company, I have wasted a *lot* of time talking to the 
legal types about such issues. While not a lawyer, my experience tells me 
that Donna's version is just about right, and Gary's original 3 points 
possibly are a bit off base. [See my specific comments, below.]


> On Sat, 11 May 2002 15:50:29 -0400 "Donna M. Recktenwalt"
> <dmrecktenwalt at prodigy_net> writes:
> 
>>Gary, I beg to disagree with you here a bit -
>>    All material has "implied copyright" once it reaches completed 
>>form by
>>the author, whether it is publicly published or not. Yuo can, of 
>>course,
>>formally apply for copyright through the copyright office, but that 
>>takes
>>time and money. For anything less than a book length manuscript it 
>>probably
>>isn't worth the effort for most of us.
>>    However, if you have a manuscript that you wrote (totally 
>>original, even
>>if you used a number of credible reference sources) and its 
>>unpublished, but
>>someone uses chunks of your text without permission, that is 
>>infringement of
>>copyright. Likewise if you have something original on a web page and 
>>it
>>isn't marked.
>>    That's why you need to to be so careful about using other 
>>people's
>>material, whether copyright marked or not. If push comes to shove, 
>>and
>>you've used someone else's material, when (if) the author prosecutes 
>>and can
>>prove that he had the material in either electronic or hard copy 
>>form BEFORE
>>you used it, and you don't have a written permission ... well, the 
>>laws of
>>copyright are clear and the penalties severe. USE CAUTION and ASK 
>>FOR
>>PERMISSION before using someone else's material - especially on a 
>>web page!
>>donna
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "gary l meyers" <garymeyers at juno_com>
>>To: <killietalk at aka_org>
>>Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 12:03 AM
>>Subject: Re: Intellectual Property
>>
> Three Points -- 1.  All material not protected by copyright is "PUBLIC
> DOMAIN" material.  


There is precious little of that, since copyrights last so long and can be 
renewed, It takes a specific act or statement to *make* something public 
domain, any more. All original work is protected until some act removes the 
protection. Period. Most 19th-Century novels are now in the public domain, 
but I think Mark Twain's writings have been renewed, recently! Almost 
nothing written, painted, filmed, sculpted or photographed in the 20th 
Century is clearly in the public domain.

> 2.  Use of a copyright notice is important because it
> informs the public that the work is protected by copyright. 


Not really very important, but it sure keeps you from pleading ignorance if 
you violate it after seeing the marking. <VBG> It is just a carry-over from 
the days when filing was required to establish the copyright, but has much 
less significance, today.


> 3.  From
> the Law "Innocent infringement occurs when the infringer did not realize
> that the work was protected."


Case law here, tends to side with the author, and not the copier. You will 
play hell proving it was copied innocently unless you can produce an 
affidavit that made you think it was converted to public domain. The 
underlying assumption is that *all* original work is protected from the time 
of its creation until the time expires.

All that said, courtesy is the way society really functions, and when it 
comes to personal property, great care must always be used. To the extent 
folks think of their holograms, photographs, WORD files, etc. as their own 
personal property, it behooves us to respect that opinion and act 
accordingly. The Golden Rule is wonderful social lubricant, I find.

I've written a few newsletter and JAKA things and have received great 
courtesy from those who wanted to reproduce them. I appreciate that. For 
those who don't know it, I'll repeat *my* normal policy about such stuff here.

I like to be quoted accurately and in context if someone wants to use my 
list postings or private e-mails, but please consider such "publication" as 
free for any non-commercial use that is useful to the hobby.

Articles, photos, holograms or other more labor-intensive efforts are also 
free to the non-commercial use of the hobby. I appreciate it if I can be 
asked/notified, and can receive a copy of the way my stuff is being 
displayed. [I may object if it is made part of some flame war or other, for 
example.]

For any commercial (such as ad-supported) publication I should be 
compensated adequately. I want to share the gravy as much as the next guy. ;-)

Basically my works are free for rational hobby-group use and not in the 
public domain for commercial publication. Please contact me off list if you 
want any clarification of what will keep me happy in this area.

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley -- 650 843-1240 -- 866 Clara Dr. Palo Alto CA 94303

Ask of politicians the ends for which laws were originally designed, and 
they will answer that laws were designed as a protection for the poor and 
weak (...) but surely no pretence can be so ridiculous(...). -- Edmund 
Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756


---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm