May I amend yours, Mary?
It is not strictly necessary to register a work to enjoy copyright
protection. You have it automaticaly.
But if you register it (at least before you confront a violator) you can
sue for other additional kinds of punitive damages and attorneys' costs, in
addition to the fee you would normally have earned. It might cost less
than $20 now too. The new copyright law is "author-friendly," I'd say.
Good luck!
On Sun, 24 Nov 1996, Mary Sheehan wrote:
> Hi Kees,
> I have done a lot of copyrighting, but not for the last five years.
> Hopefully, rules have not changed.
> Copyrights are very important because they protect you from those who might
> use your work for their own profit, without acknowledgement or compensation.
> Work published without a copyright becomes part of the public domain and can
> be reproduced without your permission. ("Publishing" in this case means that
> the work was presented publically - it does not necessarily mean that it was
> published in a book or magazine.)
> Having something copyrighted is a simple and inexpensive process. In the USA
> it cost $20 per item (5 years ago) and several things could be copyrighted
> together as one item, e.g. an anthology of poems or a book of verse.
> My copyrights are all in the art field so things may be a bit different with
> literary works, but I believe all creative output has basically the same
> rules.
> My lawyer advised me to put a copyright notice on everything I "published',
> even before applying for a copyright for that item. That way one's rights
> are protected.
> We did end up suing a huge conglomerate for copyright infringement at one
> point and they settled out of court for a satisfactory amount. That
> convinced me that copyrights are really important and the system does work.
> Enjoy your trip to Denmark.
> Mary Sheehan
>
-------------------
David Robert Austen
Masters Degree Program in Information Science
Indiana University, Bloomington
Indiana 47405 U.S.A.
Telephone 812 335 8835 Fax 812 335 8598
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