Wirt Atmar wrote:

> Unfortunately, that's true only if and only if you put a copyright notice on
> the published document, from its very first publication onwards. And even
> then, it's not always obvious what part of the document is and is not
> copyrighted (the text, the artwork, the typography, the "style", etc.).

I find myself in the scary position of having to completely contradict
everything Wirt Atmar said in a post, so I'll start with a couple of
references:

   http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/
   http://www.ssrn.com/cyberlaw/

Quote from the CyberLaw Lesson 3:

   You don't need to put a copyright notice on it.  Your work is copyrighted
   THE MOMENT IT'S WRITTEN DOWN. ... So the e-mail you send to a friend? It's
   copyrighted.

I highly recommend the CyberLaw "Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers".  One of the
authors is Eugene Volokh.

---
Michael D. Hensley   | mailto:[log in to unmask]
Allegro Consultants  | http://www.allegro.com
650/369-2303