discuss: Thread: Copyrights with no notice

On Thu, Jun 19, 2003 at 01:47:21PM -0700, Tabatha Marshall wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-06-18 at 19:12, Gerardo Arnaez wrote:
> > Hi all, the new how-to Ive written relys extensively
> > on some one else web page, and I provded comments and
> > modifications to it.  if that web page dissapears, my
> > how to makes no sense.  Should I copy that page and
> > make it an appendix?  I have tried to contact the
> > author but have not recieved a reply.
> 
> You are infringing on someone's rights by using their material without
> their permission.  It sounds like you're referring to information on a
> web site rather than in another person's "document" (defined as having a
> copyright and license such as the GFDL or equivalent).
> 
> I believe that even if a web site doesn't show a copyright, it is still
> the property of its owner.  If I'm wrong, I hope someone will correct
> me.

Under US law, that is correct. A document (regardless of medium) is
considered copyrighted even if no explicit notice is included.

I conjecture that that is also true under British and most
Commonwealth law as well.

At one time, US law required a notice. When Houghton Mifflin first
published Lord Of the Rings in the US, they did not add a copyright
notice (none being required by UK law). Someone at Ace noticed this,
and Ace rushed an unauthorized paperback edition into print. Tolkien
was not amused. That is the origin of the famous notice on the back of
the Ballantine paperback edition of LOtR. My hardbound revised
2nd. Ed. has a copyright notice.

Even absent an implicit copyright such as US law provides, it is
simple courtesy to fellow writers to ask first.

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