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On 11:59 AM, David Boyce wrote:
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<font face="Arial">I know. That is why I ended my post with
<blockquote type="cite"><font face="Arial">More pertinent here,
though, is the aspect of business confidentiality and
business relationships.<br>
<br>
End of pedantic rant.</font></blockquote>
I mentioned the broad principle of copyright law (not, surely,
mere technicalities; the very fundamentals) as somewhat of an
aside, since Del brought it up. He correctly pointed out a main
principle of copyright that often seems not be be realised: that
copyright is not something you DO; it's a right that IS.<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
David Boyce.</font><br>
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<font face="Arial"><br>
David,<br>
<br>
And here you are, of course, correct. In my former career as a
commercial photographer I had lots of occasions to deal with the
general public's ignorance of copyright law, where I had to send
some stern warnings to clients who made unauthorized uses of my
work. Fortunately for them, it never came to legal action, because
under US copyright law the presumption is with the copyright
holder - unless the user can produce a clear grant of license for
the disputed use or show that "fair use" exceptions apply. And
there are statutory fines and damages for each instance of
violation - so it could get quite expensive... <br>
<br>
The problem in the US might be that US copyright law was not
brought in line with international treaty standards until sometime
in the 70's. Until then copyrights had to be registered, and any
publication of a work without a registered copyright could throw
the work into the public domain (with a very broad definition of
what constitutes "publication"). Too many folks are under the
impression that the pre-70's regulations are still in force. This
is just not so. As David writs, copyright is automatic upon
creation of a work, and is in force for at least the lifetime of
the author - unless there is a specific grant of rights to others.
Now, what constitutes a "work" is a very complex question, having
to do with what is original from the author and what is not. <br>
<br>
Israel Stein <br>
<br>
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