IPS

[Berlin-Bob]

Same here; I have been programming since 1970 and some of my programs are still being used today, but any legal rights rest with my (various) employers.

Bob

[majm]

Yes, agreed.  I am in Australia.   I am a mechanical engineering drafter, operating a family business.   Until our client has formally paid for the drawings, technical bulletins, instruction manuals, etc that we prepare, then the copyright that automatically occurs, has not been formally transferred, but once full payment has been received ... it is theirs.   On the other hand, when we are the inventor and preparing our own design, detail, workshop, etc drawings, we retain the copyright and then the issue of royalties often comes into the picture.   I have purposedly not mention patents ....  or programming or megatronics, or robotics ...

ADD, and my husband says "don't mention the number of times drafters 'borrow' other people's designs without permission" so I won't 

JM

[marcie dean]

I suppose itsto do with age, o am one of those who knowd about what guy saidif you writr a book ,poem ot a piiece of music an original as it were you enclose iy in san ebnvelope and post it to yourself
 and as log as you never open the envelope it stays a valid original, but ss you get olde and memory fails a littl mihjy iy be wise to write a message to yourself reminding you why you shoulf not oprn it or does that also become an original from an original if you get my drift you vcoulf go on infintum in that vein lifelong, leaving he question to those that follow why did she do thatidiosyncratic id be sittin up on my cloud laughing at them scratching their heads pondering the big question why?

[Andrew Tarr]

Want to tell us the FULL details of how they got a copy of your work?

Did the OP say anyone had? 

[marcie dean]

It's like I come up with a plan to go around some law, the government cannot backtrack and say you cannot do that, so what they do do, is try and plug the holes up so that people in the future cannot use the same loopholes in whatever law you have used to sidetrack a problem.point in fact is my business company owning that plot of land, and in future will own all the properties it buys, not me personally, no-one can undo that ownership without laying out a extensive amount of money fighting it in a court of law, so what they do is add a little bit onto the law to try and plug the hole that I and many others who know what they are doing, have found, but someonelse will always come along and find another way around it, that is why some huge conglomerates place some of their shares into either the wifes name or their children names to get over tax laws etc. makes sense , yes?!

[Lionrhod]

IF YOU WRITE SOMETHING ON YOUR LAPTOP AND COMMIT IT TO A DISC INSTEADOF PRINTING IT OUT ONTO PAPER IS IT STILLYOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IF SOMEONE USES IT OR IS THAT ONLY FOR PRINTED MATTER?

Yes, it is still your intellectual property and automatically covered for copyright from the minute you finish it until 70 years after your death.
There is no need to register copyright in the UK, it is automatic.

However in some cases you may have to prove when a work was made (a common way for songwriters in the past was to post themselves a copy of the piece and keep the letter unopened).
If you have published a book then you should donate the required copies to the various UK copyright libraries (this can work out expensive and many people do not bother).

Cheers
Guy

Here in the US, and before the advent of personal computers, we did exactly this - send ourselves a copy of the work and keep it unopened. It was important that the date-stamp from the post office be on the envelope opening, so that it couldn't be tampered with.

In the US it's now generally accepted (according to my understanding) that any work is considered copyright when it is posted/sent to any other person or published in paper format or on the web.

But, if you sell it, there are many different ways of doing this. For instance there are First North American Serial Rights, where the copyright returns to the author after first printing. Then there are are worldwide rights and then "all rights" which is exactly what it sounds like. Then there are companies who buy movie rights and those that don't.

Also in dealing with websites, some retain the right to use your work to advertise their site in perpetuity, and some recognize that the author is the sole right holder of the work. Read your TOS before you publish anything on a public site if you care about its copyright!

Of course the US Copyright Office suggests you copyright your every piece of work thru them. Which runs, I think, $35 per document. (An insane price if you are even mildly prolific!)

Yep copyright law gets pretty complex. And if you're paid for your work, read the contract with care.

[Lionrhod]

I suppose itsto do with age, o am one of those who knowd about what guy saidif you writr a book ,poem ot a piiece of music an original as it were you enclose iy in san ebnvelope and post it to yourself
 and as log as you never open the envelope it stays a valid original, but ss you get olde and memory fails a littl mihjy iy be wise to write a message to yourself reminding you why you shoulf not oprn it or does that also become an original from an original if you get my drift you vcoulf go on infintum in that vein lifelong, leaving he question to those that follow why did she do thatidiosyncratic id be sittin up on my cloud laughing at them scratching their heads pondering the big question why?

Of course as in my case, when thanks to a house fire, all of your carefully recorded documents go up in flames, after you've paid to have them mailed to yourself, you ask, "Why indeed?"

[Lionrhod]

Want to tell us the FULL details of how they got a copy of your work?

Did the OP say anyone had? 

Actually, in US law, if it hasn't been published at all on any site, magazine, paper, etc. then it hasn't been copyrighted at all. However I'm sure there are laws regarding your personal property stored on your computer.

[Lionrhod]

It's like I come up with a plan to go around some law, the government cannot backtrack and say you cannot do that, so what they do do, is try and plug the holes up so that people in the future cannot use the same loopholes in whatever law you have used to sidetrack a problem.point in fact is my business company owning that plot of land, and in future will own all the properties it buys, not me personally, no-one can undo that ownership without laying out a extensive amount of money fighting it in a court of law, so what they do is add a little bit onto the law to try and plug the hole that I and many others who know what they are doing, have found, but someonelse will always come along and find another way around it, that is why some huge conglomerates place some of their shares into either the wifes name or their children names to get over tax laws etc. makes sense , yes?!

Actually that makes me even more confused.

Are you trying to copyright a legal method of closing legal loopholes? If so, then your work itself word-for-word could be copyrighted. However there's no saying that someone else couldn't notice the same loopholes and come up with the same or a similar plan to close them, and then publish that.

Why would you wish to stop others from using the same methods you did, if it keeps them safe?

If you merely wish to plug loopholes in your contracts to keep the government from undoing your work, it's my understanding that in most cases the government (at least here in the US) cannot retroactively change the law that existed at the time of a sale or other contract. However once the law changes, they can act upon contracts that were created AFTER that law passed.

Maybe I'm totally confused what you're asking.