[gweeks]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

As far as I'm aware, there's no such thing as common law copyright. There certainly isn't in the UK or the US, whether the courts have ruled that there's no such thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law_copyright

The U.S. had common law copyright prior to the 1978 copyright reforms. The U.S. common law copyright did not follow the description you gave at wikipedia. After The 1978 copyright reforms copyright starts when the work is fixed rather than when it is published, so there's no need for the concept of common law copyright. Unpublished works that would have fallen under common law copyright prior to 1978 are covered under the life+70 standard copyright duration in the U.S.

The U.S. common law copyright allowed that if someone stole your manuscript prior to your publication that you were still the owner of the copyright and that the publication of the work without your permission did not trigger the forfeiture of the copyright because you had no control over the publication.

Greg