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Subject:Re: Is your documentation copyrighted? From:Peter <pnewman1 -at- home -dot- com> To:David Castro <thetechwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com> Date:Thu, 27 Jan 2000 07:32:02 -0500
David Castro wrote:
>
> I took a Computer Security class a few years back. The professor was both a
> computer security expert, and a copyright attorney. He told us that the "poor
> man's copyright," or mailing something to yourself so that you can use the
> postmark as proof that the document existed on or before a certain date, is not
> admissable in court. The reason he gave is that you can always mail yourself an
> empty envelope, and fill and seal it later.
>
> He told us that the only way for us to inexpensively prove that something is as
> old as we say it is, is to have the document notarized by a Notary Public. He
> indicated that there are services that software companies use that take source
> code images at set intervals, and that those services will help you to prove
> that your software really is your own (and not stolen from someone else). But,
> those services are apparently somewhat expensive.
A post mark across the flap works fine and should be admissible in
court.
