How to enforce RE: [wplug] general question, need opinions..

[Bill Moran]

Patryk Laurent wrote:
> Apparently, in order to enforce it, you must register the work with the
> copyright office.  This is strange, but that's what this Law Firm has on 
> their website's FAQ:  http://www.arborlaw.com/Articles/copyfaq.html -- 
> scroll down for the heading "Enforcing your rights".

I am not a lawyer, but this is my understanding of the copyright law, and
I've done some research on this.

First off, a copyright notice is not _necessary_.  If you publish something
and you make it clear that you wrote it, you have a copyright.  Neither is
registering, see previous sentence.

However, if you want to _enforce_ your rights as protected by the copyright
laws, it's a HELL of a lot easier if you put a copyright notice on the
information and register with the copyright office.  It makes it much easier
for lawyers to prove in court that you were the original author, and what
date you created the work, and that the person who stole it _should_ have
known better.

However, by law, you still have the right to sue if someone steals your work.
It's just a lot easier to actually win the lawsuit if all the paperwork is
done beforehand.  Many law firms won't even bother to take the case if you
don't have a proper copyright notice and have the work registered, because
it's just too difficult to win.

Now, as to what _I_ would do:
First, contact the person who stole the work and explain that it's copyrighted
and explain what they should do to quit breaking the law, if that doesn't work,
contact their ISP or hosting provider and complain that one of their clients
is illegally displaying copyrighted work on their site (this scares the shit
out of ISPs!)  If that doesn't work, contact a lawyer and explain your case
and see if they think you have a chance of winning.

Then, in the future, be sure to put a copyright statement on anything you
create that you want to protect, along with the date you created it, and a
statement that says "unauthorized duplication prohibited".  If you do something
that you think is really worth something, take the time to register it so
you have irrefutable proof that it's your work.

Depending on the circumstances, there may be little you can do.  Many countries
don't have copyright laws and don't care about US laws.  If the server this
is hosted on resides in one of those countries, you may be shit out of luck.

> 
> Patryk
> 
> 
> 
>>>I know this isn't linux related, but I don't know of a better place to
>>>ask..
>>>
>>>I work as a tech at a local isp, and I've come up with a small help
>>
>>page
>>
>>>for beginners on dialup internet..
>>>
>>>Well, I've just found someone that plagureized my content verbatim and
>>>claiming it as their own, and better yet displaying a copyright on
>>
>>it..
>>
>>>I've put many hours into this page..
>>>
>>>Argh, what you you do if you were in my shoes?

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com