Re: Copyrighting a web application and idea

At 04:03 PM 12/19/00, you wrote:

>Just as ignoring a symptom by not calling a doctor's attention to it could
>lead to an untimely death, I think Ivan's point is that by not taking the
>time (and, yes, the money) to protect yourself legally, you run a risk just
>like the patient does.  The patient has no one to blame if the odd-shaped
>mole turns out to be inoperable cancer, and if someone you demo your idea to
>takes it and runs with it and you get screwed, then, again, you have no one
>to blame (and probably no legal remedy).  The risk is yours to take.

First of all, an idea cannot be copyrighted; therefore this last claim 
seems invalid, that is I don't see how a lawyer can protect someone dumb 
enough to give away their idea unless they were already way ahead of the 
market by having a ready implementation.

On the other hand, speaking as the father of three kids I can tell you that 
I've always admired pediatricians as a profession because they make 
themselves available 24/7 and *always* return calls promptly, day or night. 
What our family pediatrician doesn't do is have us bring one of our 
children in every time there's a problem. They ask questions which vary 
with the symptoms we present, and make a judgement call.

-----------------

I am curious about something regarding this copyright issue; it was my 
impression, perhaps mistaken that in order to copyright software one had to 
divulge the source. Microsoft and other software vendors keep their source 
code closed to public eyes, presumably because they feel their intellectual 
property/livelyhood is more secure this way.

Does this mean that products like MS Word are not copyright protected?

Further, I understand that for plain old writing such as a story or article 
(a friend is a professional writer) there is an implied copyright just by 
virtue of the fact that it is original material. Which is why it is a sign 
of an amateur to send a manuscript to a publisher with "copyright" stamped 
on each page. I first read about this in a book called "Writer's Market" so 
I betcha you could verify this yourself just checking in the library.

My argument then is, with web writing, including software, there is ample 
independent evidence of the date of creation from the logs and backup files 
of the web hosting company. What purpose would an attorney serve in further 
securing the intellectual property of a web developer under these 
circumstances?

And would they require that the source code be publicly listed in order to 
accomplish their job as lawyer for the owner?

Marty
http://face2interface.com

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