Posted by jack cain on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 2:34PM :
In Reply to: Are you sure??? posted by Eric B. on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 12:13PM :
Yes, Copyright law is quite clear on the subject. As I stated in my response to "picture th[ei]f". "Accessibility is not the equivalence of loss of rights." You do not compromise your rights by placing your creations in a medium that allows them to be accessed.
From - 'UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF COPYRIGHT LAW' Eugene R. Quinn, Visiting Professor of Law, Syrcuse University.
"A copyright is provided to the authors of "original works of authorship," regardless of whether the work has been published and regardless of whether the work has been formally federally registered. Unlike patents, copyrights come into being at the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. While federal registration of a copyright does have significant advantages, no registration is required in order for a copyright to exist".
The advantage to having a federally registered copyright is that you can proceed with an infringement lawsuit immediately and because you have an independent verification of the creation and content of the copyright it makes it vastly easier to prove your claim.
Clearly if someone is claiming ownership of your creation it is a violation of your copyrights. Even if the use is of a "fair use" context (e.g. criticism, parody) they must attribute the orignal material used to you or they are guilty of copyright violation.
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