Copyrights on the web (was COMMON in San Antonio)

["Ilena E. Ayala" <Ilena@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

** Disclaimer **  I am not a lawyer. 

I do have several books written by lawyers though.  One is even relevent. 
No, not 'The Elfstones of Shannara', by Terry Brooks.  I'm refering to 
'Online Law-The SPA's Legal Guide to Doing Business on the Internet' edited
by Thomas Smedinghoff,  a lawyer who specializes in computer law.  (Yes,
this is the same guy who used to have a column in what is now "AS/400
Systems Management" magazine.)  For those who may be interested, the books
ISBN# is 0-201-48980-5, it's published by by Addison-Wesley and lists at
$34.95. And it's fairly recent (1996).  Interesting & informative  reading,
especially for those connecting their businesses (and AS/400s) to the
internet.

On two basic issues with copyrighted material on the web:
1) The ability (though it may be illegal) for folks to copy the material. 
Some folks will not care if it's copyrighted or not, they will copy it and
pass it off as their own, as Bob Cozzi has described.  You can take action
against them, but you have to catch them first.  Restricting access is one
way to cut down on unauthorized violators, but the only way IMHO to prevent
it completely would be to never share your work with others, in any way,
shape or form.  

Please take the risk,  and share your work.

2) The internet crosses international borders, which raises the question of
what rights the copyright owner has in other countries.

On the second issue, the above-mentioned book says in part:
"There is no such thing as an international copyright. Copyright laws are
territorial, and apply only to acts of infringement that occur within a
country's borders. However, several international treaties link together
major nations and establish both minimum standards for protecting each
other's copyrighted works and the basis upon which such protection is to be
extended.   The Berne Convention is the principal copyright treaty.  As of
July 1995, 114 countries have signed the Berne Convention."

-Ilena Ayala
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