COPYRIGHT AND YOU 

                               Daniel Rutter



    Ed: Daniel looks at the issues and terms involved in copyright, for
  both software and written material, including Megadisc's position. Worth
  knowing, you creative types out there.


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    People who work or only dabble in the computer field tend to be very
  touchy about copyright. So do writers. Since I'm definitely one of the
  former and nominally one of the latter, I'll have a shot at clarifying
  the mechanics of copyright for all those out there to whom it's still an
  incorporeal, ill-defined entity.

    Copyright, in essence, is the ownership of information, like a patent
  on words and data. It does not need to be officially registered with
  any government bodies (unlike patents), but, should a court case involve
  it, some verification of ownership is needed for victory. To
  paraphrase Garry Disher in his excellent book "Writing Professionally",
  well worth buying if you're considering a career in the field,
  "copyright can be held over literary, musical and dramatic works,
  artistic works..., films, sound recordings and television and radio
  programmes... According to the agreement reached between the
  signatories to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1969, copyright is
  automatically granted from the moment that work is created."  Copyright
  as it pertains to many of you out there will fall into two categories,
  which I'll deal with forthwith.

  Software Copyright 

    Let's begin with an issue close to many people's hearts, software
  copyright. The copyright of commercial programs is usually held by the
  releasing company, which may pay a royalty on each sale to the author or
  simply give him or her a lump sum in return for complete future
  ownership. In the case of computer software, there are many "cottage
  industry" companies which comprise only one or two people, who both
  write the software and run the company, for example Jon Potter's Left
  Side Software. This sort of setup is functionally unknown in the
  printed media, and vastly simplifies copyright identities.

  Commercial Software 

    If anybody copies software illegitimately (i.e. without the consent
  of the copyright holder and payment of a suitable fee), they are liable
  for prosecution whether or not they sell the software. Even giving it
  away is illegal, as is keeping a backup copy unless specifically
  authorised to do so by the manual (this is usually permitted). Note
  that this prosecution is only possible if the laws of the country in
  which the copying takes place or into which the software is imported do
  not permit copyright infringement - some south-east Asian countries
  still have no copyright laws (they didn't sign at the UCC), and it is
  common practice for vast piracy establishments to set themselves up
  perfectly legally, selling very cheap software and photocopied manuals
  to tourists who subsequently (and illegally) take it home.  The fine in
  Australia for software piracy stands in the vicinity of $50,000 per item
  copied.  Now we come to the two basic species of non-commercial, or
  freely distributable, software - public domain and shareware.

  Public Domain and Other Software  

    PD is totally unencumbered by copyright. There is no way anybody can
  possibly prosecute you for doing anything you want with public domain
  software. You can modify it, you can pinch bits out of it and use them
  in your own programs, you can bundle it together and sell it
  commercially, you can even (if you're not very clever and not very nice)
  pretend you wrote it and release it as shareware or a commercial package
  (but you'll get caught extremely swiftly, and make not a lot out of
  it). If the author's put a note on it stating that it may not, for
  example, be modified, sold commercially or what have you, then it is
  FREEWARE, which the author retains rights to but does not request
  payment for.  SHAREWARE, on the other hand, IS covered by copyright, but
  not as strictly as commercial software. There are two sorts of
  copyright notice that can come with shareware, which I'll call FREQUENT
  USAGE (FU) and PERMISSIBLE TERM (PT).

    FU copyright means that if you use a program often, you must send the
  requested sum of money to the author, or to whatever institution he
  specifies. If you don't, you're infringing copyright and may be
  prosecuted as harshly as if you pirated something commercial. FU
  copyright is, however, not as effective as it could be due to the
  fuzziness of the word "often". How often is often? How long is a piece
  of string? If it came to a court case, the author could be a bit shaky.
  Which is where PT copyright comes in. In this form, you may use the
  program as often or as little as you like for a certain term, say three
  months. If you haven't registered by the expiry of that term, further
  use constitutes and offence and prosecution may take place.

    There are also various shades between PD and shareware, for example
  the different grades of CRIPPLEWARE, which is software disabled in one
  way or another, which may be fully enabled by sending off your money and
  getting a key file or completed version in return. These crippled
  versions may be completely free of copyright, with only a note saying
  it'd be nice if you registered, or they may have PT or other copyright
  imposed upon them.

  Copyright on Writing 

    The second sort of copyright which will be of interest to many of you
  out there is your own personal copyright over things you may have
  written.  Megadisc reserves the right to sell Megadisc issues with all
  contents, past and future, here and overseas at any time (unquote), but
  does not take your personal copyright away from you - you are free to
  send your pieces to any other magazine for publication (although I'd
  advise you to include a note regarding its previous publication here).
  To further paraphrase Garry Disher, "To indicate that you are claiming
  copyright [to a written work] you should write the symbol © on the title
  page, along with your name, the year and the place where you live... If
  you feel that disputes over ownership are a possibility then deposit a
  sealed and dated copy of your manuscript with your solicitor or,
  alternatively, send the manuscript to yourself by registered mail so
  that the sealed, dated envelope can be produced as evidence of the date
  of completion."

      When submitting work on disk, simply include the © (alt-e on the
  standard Amiga keymap) symbol (or just write "copyright) at the top with
  the abovementioned information. [You needn't bother with this, though,
  if you're writing for Megadisc, as we won't pinch your copyright
  anyway.]

    When writing for other magazines, however, make sure you know their
  copyright rules BEFORE you submit work. Many magazines request all
  world rights to your work in return for their payment - this means that
  you relinquish all title to your writing, and cannot even give it away
  or post it on a bulletin board without technically infringing the
  magazine's copyright. They, however, can re-use your writing as much as
  they like in whatever form they like (publish it as part of a book, in
  an annual edition, paraphrase it for reference notes), without paying
  you a cent more. If this idea doesn't appeal to you, make sure that in
  your covering letter (put that on paper, even if the rest of your
  submission's on disk, to save pain for their editorial staff) you state
  the terms you are willing to give them the article under. For example,
  you might specify "first world rights, one use only", which means you
  can offer the article to other publications even if this one accepts it
  (provided you specify for the subsequent offerings that they're getting
  "second rights", "third rights" and so forth), and also means they can't
  re-use your material. You can also restrict the area of your copyright,
  for example "Australian rights". Or the nature of publication - for
  example, you could sell your novel to a newspaper with "serial rights".

    You can also negotiate for a higher rate of pay. The Australian
  Journalists' Association recommended pay rate for articles was in 1989
  $352.60 for the first 1000 words and 35 cents for each following word.
  Don't expect to get anywhere near this much (this kind of pay is for
  "real", full-time journos in newspaper offices) - for example, the
  Australian Commodore and Amiga Review pays five cents a word - But if
  you feel your work to be worthy of it, go ahead and bargain upwards;
  it's worth a try.

    So there's your potted guide to common copyright - I hope it's
  clarified the issue for you.


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