Date   : Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:38:40 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Copyright on BBC Software

"Chris Priest" wrote:
> Now I have the Acorn fileserver setup and running at the charity for the
> interactive IT museum, the question has been raised as to the legality
> of the software I have preloaded.
> 
> Does anyone have an idea on if copyrights still exist for things such as
> the L3 file server?
 
Sigh!
 
Copyright in the UK lasts for 50 years from the death of the
author for anything produced before about 1990, 70 years after the
death of the author for anything produced after about 1990. In the
case of a corporate author, "death" is deemed to happen as soon as
the work is produced, ie term is publication data + 50 (70) years.
 
There is nothing an author can do to prevent a work being
copyrighted. Copyright exists as soon as pen hits paper (or
fingers hit keyboard). There is nothing an author can do to
terminate or extend a copyright. Only legislation can do that.
 
Something being copyrighted DOES NOT MEAN that it is copy
restricted. Copyright is exactly that. The right to decide how
something is copied. A copyright holder can decide to allow their
work to be completely freely redistributable, they can decide that
no copies at all can be made.
 
A copyright holder has ABSOLUTELY NO POWER to prevent a work being
quoted for reference, review, critism or satire. A copyright
holder CANNOT say "you can't quote my work without my
persmission", by publishing the work in the first place the
copyright holder is giving COMPLETE AND EXPLICIT PERMISSION for
their work to be reviewed, quoted, critisied and satiried. If you
do not want people to quote your work, reference it, link to it,
DO NOT PUBLISH!
 
Copyright imposes a moral duty on persons quoting a work to
reference the source.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
Spectrum Emulators - http://mdfs.net/Apps/Emulators/Spectrum