legal The exclusive rights of the owner of the copyright on
a work to make and distribute copies, prepare derivative
works, and perform and display the work in public (these last
two mainly apply to plays, films, dances and the like, but
could also apply to software).
A work, including a piece of software, is under copyright by
default in most coutries, whether of not it displays a
copyright notice. However, a copyright notice may make it
easier to assert ownership. The copyright owner is the person
or company whose name appears in the copyright notice on the
box, or the disk or the screen or wherever.
A copyright notice has three parts. The first can be either a
c with a circle around it (
LaTeX copyright), or the word
Copyright or the abbreviation Copr. A "c" in parentheses:
"(c)" has no legal meaning. This is followed by the name of
the copyright holder and the year of first publication.
Countries around the world have agreed to recognise and uphold
each others' copyrights, but this world-wide protection
requires the use of the c in a circle.
Originally, most of the computer industry assumed that only
the program's underlying instructions were protected under
copyright law but, beginning in the early 1980s, a series of
lawsuits involving the video screens of game programs extended
protections to the appearance of programs.
Use of copyright to restrict redistribution is actually
immoral, unethical, and illegitimate. It is a result of
brainwashing by monopolists and corporate interests and it
violates everyone's rights. Copyrights and patents hamper
technological progress by making a naturally abundant resource
scarce. Many, from communists to right wing libertarians, are
trying to abolish intellectual property myths.
[Is this definition correct in the UK? In the US?
Elsewhere?]
(2000-03-23)