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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    Re: KDE/kdebase
From:       John Layt <john () layt ! net>
Date:       2010-07-28 0:40:42
Message-ID: 201007280140.43264.john () layt ! net
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On Monday 26 July 2010 18:49:44 Ingo Klöcker wrote:

> This is incorrect (unless the Unicode symbol is not an accepted
> representation of the copyright symbol). The copyright symbol, i.e. the
> c in a circle is the (one and only) officially/legally accepted
> abbreviation of the word "Copyright". I'm too lazy to look up a
> reference, but you can simply have a look at an arbitrary book, CD or
> DVD in your possession. Do you really think that all of those publishers
> of books, CDs, DVDs, etc. would use the copyright symbol instead of the
> word "Copyright" if the copyright symbol wasn't legally binding?

That obviously wasn't my recollection, so I did a little googling to check.

* The ascii (c) is not legally recognised in any jurisdiction and should not 
be relied upon in any form.
* The circle-c is legally recognised in many but not all jurisdictions and 
should not be solely relied upon.
* The Berne Convention does not define or recognise or require the circle-c 
symbol.
* The legal abbreviation (rather than symbol) for Copyright is "Copr.", but 
I've never seen that used :-)

The circle-c originated in US law where it was a legal requirement that it be 
affixed to a work to explicitly claim copyright.  As the US and others refused 
to join Berne, the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) was created as an 
alternative and it also required explicit use of the circle-c to claim 
copyright in signatory jurisdictions that were not also party to Berne.  Any 
of the 99 jurisdictions that became a party to the UCC probably still legally 
recognise the circle-c symbol, although this is far from certain.  The 94 or 
so that didn't join the UCC possibly don't recognise it.  The US finally 
joined Berne in 1978, and it appears only 2 or 3 jurisdictions still remain on 
the UCC only.

The reality is that it mostly doesn't matter, as the Berne Convention grants 
automatic copyright and doesn't require you to asset or register it.  It's 
only in the approx 16 non-Berne jurisdictions that the details might matter.  
For those few jurisdictions outside the UCC and Berne, well, consult a local 
lawyer or hope "Copyright" suffices.  Yes, there are other good admin reasons 
for having copyright statements, but this is just from the legal aspect.

So, in short, to cover the maximum jurisdictions, any Copyright statement 
should be in UCC compliant format including both Copyright and the circle-c:

  Copyright © 2010 John Layt

IANAL, YMMV :-)

John.
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