BY THE WAY ... | 2006-08-05
Somebody is going to take seriously my joke below about claiming LibAnon's joke by putting in "Copyright Robert W. Whitaker, 2006." Somebodyis going to thing I'm really shrewd.
This beings up the whole question of Intellectual Property.
JRR Tolkine lost the American rights to LOTR because he did not meet the copyright requirements, so people tend to think that is something really hard to figure out here.
If you have an idea, write yourself a letter describing it and, when you receive it back, leave the envelope unopened. You can send yourself a dozen of those and keep them all.
Oops, I have just been talking about PATENT law, not simple copyrights.
Tolkien could have submitted his book for publication in the US and held the copyright on it. A manuscript gives you copyright, @Robert W. Whitaker 2006 be screwed.
I used to instruct contract law. Instead of telling someone you you don't want someone else to get the idea, write a descritpion of it, make copies, and send a bunch of them to yourself. It never occurred to Tolkien that he had to do anything of the sort. He shouldn't have HAD to.
In the case of PATENT law, writing the ida and being able to open it in court does not guarantee you exclusive right. But if you are the sort of peson who has to tell your idea to people, you re probablynot going to get exclusive rights anyway. But you can go to court against someone who is the sort of entrepeneur who DOES get a copyright.
He will pay you lots of money and give you opportunties you could not have gotten any other way.