Re: [dvd-discuss] Bunner wins DeCSS trade secret appeal

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

As Peter was pointing out, Nobody HERE may be arguing that, but it is the 
way the law is currently written. Registered copyright (as required in the 
good ol' days) preserves all rights. Actually you can elect to publish 
without copyright. At that point the work enters the public domain. The 
work cannot be copyrighted again. IANAL but under common law, I would 
think that I cannot take a work in the public domain and publish it under 
my own name and claim it is my own. Probably the doctrine of fraud applies 
for a commercial publishing and sales but I don't know how it would apply 
if I self published.....that reminds me of wasn't there some problmes with 
Abby Hoffman's "Steal this book"?

Actually I was suggesting that the UTSA may be more applicable for 
author's manuscripts than copyright. A manuscript is a trade secret and is 
not released to the public. It is given some protection (locked door in 
the authors study). Only by some misappropriation is it revealed before 
publication (e.g, Harper which preceeds UTSA by a decade). 




Noah silva <nsilva@atari-source.com>
Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
11/05/01 02:00 PM
Please respond to dvd-discuss

 
        To:     dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: [dvd-discuss] Bunner wins DeCSS trade secret appeal




On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Michael A Rolenz wrote:

> The problem with the concept that it's copyrighted as soon as it is 
> written down is that nobody know that. In physics if it can't be 
observed 
> it isn't "physical". Ditto for copyright.  It's also hard to argue that 
> the full range of copyright protection should be extended to private 
> scribblings. Now maybe a use for the UTSA would be to prosecute somebody 

> who steals a manuscript using it.

nobody argues that.. which is why I restrict my use of the term
"copyright" to mean "registered copyright".  Even if you _can_ prove you
wrote it down first, your legal rights are greatly diminished if it wasn't
a registered copyright.  The main purpose to register copyright is to
provide public proof that you are the author.  As soon as you publish
something with no copyright notice, it loses any copyright status.  I
assume the default copyright is to protect authors against theft before
they are finished with their works.

> As for published.....well lets see. It has been disseminated to a small 
> number of people and the DVD-discuss archive WAS being made available on 

> the Internet at OPENLAW.ORG. Granted it didn't get distribution in a 
> bookstore by a commeercial publisher but what more does it need. A book 
> run is about 2500 copies I think. How many hits does open law get daily? 
I 
> guess the question is that even though it's not deposited with the 
office, 
> it would seem to be published.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Peter D. Junger" <junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu>
> Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> 11/05/01 10:22 AM
> Please respond to dvd-discuss
> 
> 
>         To:     dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
>         cc: 
>         Subject:        Re: [dvd-discuss] Bunner wins DeCSS trade secret 
appeal
> 
> 
> Noah silva writes:
> 
> : If you publish something, it doesn't qualify for trade secret status
> : then.  If you copyright something, you've just published it - anybody 
> can
> : walk into the copyright office and read it.  You can't apply for trade
> : secret protection on a book, etc., and it doesn't make sense to apply 
> for
> : trade secret on software itself. 
> 
> In the U.S. today if you write anything original it is copyrighted asw 
> soon as
> it is written down.  That does not mean  that it is published.  And it 
> certainly
> does not mean that it is available at the copyright office.
> 
> This message is copyrighted, it is arguable that it is 'published' as 
that 
> term is
> defined by the copyright law, but it most certainly is not available 
from 
> the
> copyright office. (Unless I decide to register it or deposit it with the 

> copyright
> office.)
> 
> --
> Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, 
OH
>  EMAIL: junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu 
>         NOTE: junger@pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu no longer exists
> 
> 
> 
>