[WikiEN-l] What constitutes a copyvio?

Thu Sep 11 13:46:05 UTC 2003

Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
>on 9/10/03 10:24 PM, Rick at giantsrick13 at yahoo.com wrote:
>>Is Stevevertigo correct that, because the page doesn't specifically have a
>>copyright on it, it's fair game to be stolen and incorporated onto
>>Wikipedia?  I can't believe that.
>
>You should not believe that. Everything is copyright by its author, if no
>one else, notice or no notice, unless it has been released into the public
>domain either by the passage of time, some specific license to use it or
>simply a declaration that people are "free to use it" as one sometimes sees.

U.S. copyright law has dispensed with the notice provision since
joining the Berne Convention in 1988.

Stephen Carlson

--
Stephen C. Carlson, 
mailto:scarlson at mindspring.com 
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35