Date:         Tue, 8 Oct 1996 11:02:59 PDT
Reply-To:     TWB2%Rates%FAR@GO50.COMP.PGE.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         TWB2%Rates%FAR@GO50.COMP.PGE.COM
Subject:      SAS-L CD and Copyright

I believe you no longer have to assert copyright rights on a work to own
them--it is not necessary to include the copyright word or symbol.  On the other
hand, copyright law is civil law rather than criminal law.  That means that you
cannot get the police to arrest someone for violating your copyright.  What you
can do is sue them.  If you can prove that they have lessened the value of your
material through their use of the material, you can be awarded damages.  It does
not matter whether they use your material to make money or just to cover costs
of distribution--the issue is whether or not they lessened the value of your
material by their use.  This would force you to argue that you were going to
publish your material (without other SAS-L postings) and that someone would buy
it.  If so, and if someone else's use of your material would reduce sales of
your publication, then a court might award you damages to compensate you for
your loss.  I cannot imagine any poster I have read on this list thinking their
postings have commercial value by themselves as posted (and without the original
questions, since those are copyright by their authors).  A few people could
argue their postings are the foundation of a book.  Good luck to them.
 
I'd say, "go Phil," except I doubt I would buy the CD.  Searching the archive
works for me, and I do not need to buy a new archive each month.
 
Tim Berryhill - Contract Programmer and General Wizard
TWB2@PGE.COM
Frequently at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco
The correlation coefficient between their views and
my postings is slightly less than 0