Re: RFC: OpenBSD configurations for gcc 3.3.x

[Russ Allbery <rra at stanford dot edu>]

Robert Dewar <dewar@gnat.com> writes:

> This whole business of legal significance of copyright notices and
> discussions about exact formats required is obsolete. The copyright law
> was changed some time ago (86 I think) in a radical manner (to make the
> US more conformant to e.g. the Berne convention). The current situation
> is that copyright notices have no specific legal significance.  A
> document is copyrighted whether or not it has the notice. The notice is
> therefore there only for informational purposes, not for specific legal
> reasons.

    Use of the notice may be important because it informs the public that
    the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner,
    and shows the year of first publication.  Furthermore, in the event
    that a work is infringed, if a proper notice of copyright appears on
    the published copy or copies to which a defendant in a copyright
    infringement suit had access, then no weight shall be given to such a
    defendant's interposition of a defense based on innocent infringement
    in mitigation of actual or statutory damages, except as provided in
    section 504(c)(2) of the copyright law.  Innocent infringement occurs
    when the infringer did not realize that the work was protected.

[...]

    The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all the
    following three elements:

    1. The symbol \x{00A9} (the letter C in a circle), or the word
    "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr."; and

    2. The year of first publication of the work.  In the case of
    compilations or derivative works incorporating previously published
    material, the year date of first publication of the compilation or
    derivative work is sufficient.  The year date may be omitted where a
    pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual
    matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards,
    stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article; and

    3. The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation
    by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative
    designation of the owner.

    Example: \x{00A9} 2002 John Doe 

(The copyright symbol changed to \x{00A9} by me.)

This is from <http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#noc>, published by
the United States Copyright Office, and therefore about the best legal
advice you will get on notice of copyright in the United States without
hiring a lawyer.

Based on the above, (C) is probably worthless in a copyright notice, since
it is not the letter C in a circle, but I suppose that could be arguable.
It is, however, completely redundant with "Copyright" in the United
States; the three points above are also what's found in the US copyright
statutes concerning notice of copyright, as I recall.  I doubt that it's
hurting anything, though.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>