Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood
It gets even more mucky under the DMCA. I no longer have to register my copyright with the copyright office (part of the Library of Congress) to have a valid copyright.
|
Yes, but this is not directly related to the DMCA. The US is a signatory to the Berne copyright convention. Coyright exists automatically upon completion of the work. Registration is not necessary to
have a copyright. This was true before the DMCA existed.
Quote:
|
If he fails to enforce his rights he is subject to having those rights stripped from him. If I posted the works (even for free) and he becomes aware of it and fails to exercise his rights the works may fall into the public domain.
|
And this is the fundamental issue. The applicable laws are formulated in such a manner that if you don't
defend your rights, you can
lose them.
Fantasy writer Katherine Kurtz went through that some years back. Some fans wanted to publish a fan magazine with stories set in Kurtz's Deryni universe, which they planned to sell. They wrote to Katherine for permission. She said no. They went ahead and published anyway!
Katherine
had to sue them. She didn't particularly
want to, but if she
didn't, she risked
losing her rights, because she didn't defend them. She sued, won, and the fans in question had to do things like take out expensive ads in trade publications acknowledging that they had violated her rights and apologizing.
Quote:
|
Was it illegal to post Steve's works before he noticed and told me to take them down? Yes. Then there is the secondary point of damages. How much does Steve want? This is why lawyers get the high fees that they charge.
|
And damages are a good reason to pay the fee and register the copyright. They provide legal proof that copyright existed on the completed work as of the date the registration was made, and make it a lot easier to go for damages in an infringement suit.
______
Dennis