Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
UK copyright law has in the past upheld the idea of Sweat of the Brow, (the classic example being a telephone directory) whereby skill and perseverance could result in a claim of copyright protection, even without originality, but recent rulings have gone against the idea. |
I guess that, as I think someone said here in this thread somewhere (without re-reading everything to find the exact quote), you can put your own copyright on anything you want, doesn't mean it will mean anything.
Of course, I suppose there are instances where claiming copyright on something that one clearly has no rights to would be an offense, too -- I can't just go and declare copyright on the latest movie out in the theatres, for example -- but in a case such as my own,
not declaring copyright at all does potentially leave open the door for anyone to do whatever they want to. A rather notable example of that is the 1963 Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn film,
Charade -- the studios had neglected to include a copyright notice anywhere in the credits, and thus the very day it was released in the theatres, it was in the public domain.