[Foundation-l] Authoring on wikijunior : providing private information.

[Robert Scott Horning]

Lars Aronsson wrote:

>Robert Scott Horning wrote:
>
>  
>
>>In addition, one of the reasons I asked for this information is 
>>that I intend to do a formal copyright registration on 
>>Wikijunior books when I send them into print format.
>>    
>>
>
>To avoid further confusion, it should be pointed out that this 
>"copyright registration" is something that only exists in the 
>United States.  Earlier (before 1978) the U.S. had a copyright 
>law that required copyrights to be registered, much like patents 
>work in other countries.  If you didn't register, anybody could 
>claim copyright to your text.  The registration was not made at 
>the patent office, but at the U.S. Copyright Office, which is a 
>part of the Library of Congress, www.copyright.gov
>  
>

As a bit of history and as a U.S. Citizen, I think the policy to not 
compel registration for copyright enforcement is a bad policy and 
contrary to the intents and wishes of the authors of the founding 
documents of the American Republic.  More over, when something was 
registered, you at least had an address to look up to try and trace 
authorship of a given piece of copyrighted material.  As it is now, you 
have no clue if something is copyrighted unless it is very old, and even 
then you have some serious doubts.  For those of us who try in good 
faith to preserve older texts or are using materials from public 
sources, this can get to be a real mess.  I understand other countries 
have different policies and customs, but in this case it was a custom 
from outside of America that was forced on the American courts by well 
thinking but short-sighted people.  Of course, that is just my opinion 
and a rather small voice at that.

The other motivation for requiring registration back elsewhen was to 
establish a library for the members of the U.S. Congress.  It was 
started with a donation of books from Thomas Jefferson, but most 
subsequent volumes in the library were from this registration system. 
 As a result, a significant portion of American and world history has 
been preserved in this library, which is arguably one of the primier 
libraries of the world.  Most mass-market volumes are still registered 
for additional copyright protections that are not available from the 
defacto copyright.

As an author, copyright registration also gives legal proof that you 
wrote the content.  The fact that you filed it with the Library of 
Congress is legal proof that the stuff is indeed yours and not somebody 
elses, or they have to provide legal proof that they wrote it prior to 
the date that you filed.  For things like books this isn't so big of a 
deal, but computer software can be a little tricky in that regard and a 
copyright filing can be used in part to invalidate a software patent, 
for example.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning