[pct-l] Legal Ponderings......

[Gary Wright]

On Jan 6, 2008, at 5:52 PM, g l wrote:

> Hmmmm.  How does one go about copyrighting everything before they  
> post it???  Talk about labor intensive!!!  What does "ownership"  
> rights imply at that point???

In the US you don't have to do anything for your works to be  
copyrighted.   The default situation is that you own the rights to  
your own original works simply by being the author.

You may choose to register your copyrights which gives you additional  
legal recourse should someone infringe on your rights.  Proving you  
are the author of a work is obviously easier if you've made a public  
declaration of this fact via the registration process.

This FAQ <http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/> is pretty readable.

The rights associated with copyright can be transferred--for example  
you might want to sell the 'movie rights' to your online journal.   
Agreements of this sort are basically contract law, which is the  
point that Paul made earlier about web sites.  Many sites have a  
'user agreement' which is a very weak form of contract.  By clicking  
on that little checkbox when you signed up you've signed a contract,  
which might have included something about transferring some of your  
rights.

It is my understanding that these types of agreements have rarely  
been tested in the courtroom.  Especially for free sites, the  
agreement is
almost always a legal way of avoiding entering into a contract!   
Basically you pay nothing and they owe you absolutely nothing, legally.

FYI, I'm not a lawyer but I did run a web hosting company at one  
point so I've had discussions with lawyers about this sort of thing  
but don't sue me if my amateur legal opinions get you in trouble.

P.S.  A much bigger problem than web site legal agreements are  
employment contracts that often have lots of details regarding  
intellectual property  rights--read employment contracts carefully  
and consider using a lawyer in these situations!

Radar