[Samson]

The following was found in the copyright information for a codebase I was asked to look at. This seems fishy, and I'm seeking opinions on how true any of this information is or not. Personally this doesn't sound correct at all and doesn't jive with what I picked up from the Copyright Office. The person's name has been removed in order to protect them for now.

Originally Posted by written Jan 2004 IF you're an American, no matter what age, you may make an attempt to copyright portions of your source code. Diku's liscense expires in 2007, so you may at that time copyright anything based on Diku, but not Merc. For Merc 2.2 derivatives you must wait until 2010. Any source code which contains the comment 'copyright to ' is a valid state-level copyrighting tag. To be protected on a federal, and thus national, level, you must inform the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyrights Office, in Washington, DC, USA. Dikumud creators have 'given up' on their attempts to go commercial with their product, and have given Dikumud][ to Whistler, who is developing Valhalla Mud Engine (VME). This occured after an incident in New York at the Replay: Gaming conference when Sony's Bernie Yee made the comment 'you know, it's like Diku' -- I was present and informed the Dikumud team, and created a media stir, whereby Sony quickly silenced the team. I believe, completely, that Dikumud and its variants were the basis for Everquest and similar engines, however I believe also that Dikumud was based on Gygax pen-and-paper games, and also rooted in basic group psychology, and thus they, too, could not hold 'control of concepts' as the concepts are considered to be general public knowledge and not owned by any particular entity. What you must do is print out a copy of your souce code, any other documents, and fill out a form which is available from the U.S. Copyright Office Website: http://www.copyright.gov Then you must enclosed $35 and mail the packet to: U.S. Copyright Office 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Washington, D.C. 20559-6000 (202) 707-3000 If you have questions or are interested in finding out more about U.S. Copyrighting, the U.S. Copyright Office: 'Note that we are prohibited from giving specific legal advice and opinions. In addition, we are unable effectively to answer questions that raise complex issues and require a dialogue. In such situations, we may encourage you to contact us by telephone at (202) 707-5959.' Please note that source codes which are derived works are not considered to be valid for copyrighting, only the new work can be copyrighted. What does a copyright do? Well, it provides you a legal and notorized way of protecting your intellectual property from being stolen, used, unlawfully distributed or otherwise used to make money without your consent. Also, if your copyright is approved, it will be added to the Library of Congress records on U.S. held copyrights. Then may go to Washington, DC and request to see your source code.