Re: [dvd-discuss] Copyright ranges

[Wendy Seltzer <wendy(at)seltzer.com>]

Almost -- a notice of copyright (no longer required under U.S. law but 
still helpful against an assertion of innocent infringement) should include 
the circled c or "Copyright", the author's name, and the date of first 
publication.  If a second edition includes new material, the later 
publication date applies only to the new material, so a notice might 
include both dates.

For works of individual authorship, however, the publication dates don't 
matter much, because the copyright term extends 70 years from the author's 
death (unless the Eldred suit is successful in pushing that back to life + 
50, to be argued this October in the Supreme Court).   Works for hire run 
95 years from first publication.  I'm sure we're all holding our breaths 
for the Windows 95 source code in 2090...

--Wendy

At 11:03 AM 8/5/02 -0400, Noah silva wrote:
>The years mentioned were years the document was copyrighted.  For example,
>I release my book, first edition, and copyright is 1998, then I release a
>2nd edition, copyright 1999 - etc.  The duration would be from the latest
>date.
>
>  -- noah silva
>
>On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Thomas Olsson wrote:
>
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I have been wondering about this for a while, it's time to ask the experts.
> >
> > Frequently I see "Copyright <x>-<y> <name>" on various things. I have no
> > idea what those two years might imply. It certainly doesn't seem to be
> > anywhere close to the duration of the copyright, more like "I have been
> > tinkering with the copyrighted content between these two years" or similar.
> >
> > The only things I have been able to find, are rules about how to write
> > copyright notices (from when they were required), and none of these allow
> > a range of years.
> >
> > What is the legal meaning of this, if any?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Thomas
> >
> >

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
Chilling Effects: http://www.chillingeffects.org/