Kent M Pitman  <pitman@nhplace.com> wrote:
+---------------
| I also looked in files like EMACS1;EINIT 272 (file creation date
| uncertain due to where I obtained it and the fact that it had been
| through some zipping that destroyed the original file date) and I
| don't see a copyright notice there either.  Yes, after 1978, that
| isn't supposed to matter, but I thought Emacs was older than that,
| and dated to the times when (I thought) things fell instantly into
| the public domain if proper notice was not attached.  Am I wrong
| on that, too?  Just curious.  For example:
| 
|  | NOTE: Before 1978, federal copyright was generally secured by the
|  | act of publication with notice of copyright, assuming compliance
|  | with all other relevant statutory conditions. U. S. works in the
|  | public domain on January 1, 1978, (for example, works published
|  | without satisfying all conditions for securing federal copyright
|  | under the Copyright Act of 1909) remain in the public domain under
|  | the 1976 Copyright Act.
| 
| Source: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
...
| So to use the Berne Convention in the way suggested here would
| seem to me to be a horrifyingly chilling thing to do to free speech
| everywhere, and something that would serve no one.
+---------------

And besides, the U.S. wasn't even a signatory to the Berne Convention
until 1989:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works
    ...
    The United States refused initially to become a party to the
    Convention, since it would have required major changes in its
    copyright law (particularly with regard to moral rights, removal
    of general requirement for registration of copyright works as
    well as elimination of mandatory copyright notice). However,
    on March 1, 1989, the US "Berne Convention Implementation Act
    of 1988" came into force and the United States became a party
    to the Berne Convention.
    ...

So there!!  ;-}  ;-}


-Rob

p.s. For those who don't know what the issue is, under the Berne
Convention no formal copyright notice or registration is necessary
[though it makes prosecution a lot easier] -- all "works" are
"born copyrighted":

    Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is
    prohibited to require formal registration (note however that
    when the United States joined the Convention in 1988, they
    continued to make statutory damages and attorney's fees only
    available for registered works).

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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